On the morning of Wednesday, June 7, 1967, the command of the 55th paratroopers’ brigade was stationed in the plaza of the Intercontinental Hotel, and from there the brigade commander gave the order to enter the city. The main force moved to the Lions’ Gate. It was followed by two companies from the 71st Battalion, which had just ascended the Mount of Olives ridge, the 66th Battalion, which also descended from the ridge, and the 28th Battalion, which came from the Rockefeller Museum, and a tank division. Company D of the 71st Battalion moved towards the Garbage Gate and entered the city after the forces of the Jerusalem Brigade. They continued to purge the Christian Quarter.
At 9:45 AM, the brigadier general armored vehicle arrived at the Lions Gate, bypassed the tanks that could not enter through the narrow gate, and moved in on Via Dolorosa Street. A few minutes later, the command group entered the Temple Mount, together with Company A of the 71st Battalion, which arrived first among the battalion’s companies.
At 10:00 AM, Mota Gur announced on the radio network the famous sentence: “The Temple Mount is in our hands.”
Journalist Israel Harel, who was in the first IDF force to enter the Temple Mount, reported that “Moshe Dayan met there (on the Temple Mount – DI) the representatives of the Waqf, who declared to him that they humbly accept Israeli rule and asked that the soldiers not harm the sanctity of the place.”
