Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accepted the position of the Shin Bet and the IDF and decided that the police could break into the Temple Mount mosques during Ramadan only with his approval, in effect removing the authority of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over police matters in the holy compound.
On Sunday night, the official start of Ramadan (and the first day of Adar II), Police prevented hundreds of young PA Arabs from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first prayer of the month of Ramadan, contrary to Netanyahu’s promises that there would be no restrictions on freedom of worship. In several cases, gatherings of dozens of people formed at the entrance, and police officers used batons to keep the crowd away. But some young Arabs managed to enter the mosque when they arrived accompanied by their parents, or in cases where the police opened the barriers due to pressure created by gatherings at the entrances, and let anyone who wanted to enter without being checked.
عند أبواب الأقصى قبل قليل
همجية الاحتلال لم تعهدها البشرية في العصر الحديث. pic.twitter.com/mrL9Q210zL— مرشد سياحي للتاريخ الأندلسي (@Andalusrise) March 10, 2024
Netanyahu originally sided with the security apparatus that objected to Ben Gvir’s intent to severely limit Muslim access to the Temple Mount during Ramadan. In response, on Saturday night, Ben Gvir sent the PM a letter saying, “I would like to warn you that even after the supreme efforts of the police, there are significant gaps in the ability to implement the Prime Minister’s decision without endangering human life.”
Ben Gvir Continued: “I’ll emphasize, of course, that I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet and I don’t know if there will definitely be an event with many casualties or an emergency, but from the discussion I held and the questions I asked, I did not get the impression that the police have the ability to deal with and ensure the safety and security of the expected number of worshipers on the Temple Mount as a result of the decision of the Prime Minister.”
Ben Gvir added: “I am not under the impression that there is an ability to handle the heavy load at the gates of the Temple Mount, which will be created when tens of thousands arrive at the entrances of the Mount, certainly not an amount of fifty to sixty thousand people. I am not under the impression that there is a real response to a safety incident that could happen on the mountain and control over what would happen there. Even more so, I was not under the impression that there is an ability to limit the amount to fifty to sixty thousand people when there is no age limit!”
تغطية صحفية: “الآلاف من الفلسطينيين يؤدون صلاة الفجر الأولى من رمضان في رحاب المسجد الأقصى المبارك”. pic.twitter.com/5XQtL2fuDD
— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) March 11, 2024
In the coming days, the number of Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount is expected to increase significantly, and starting Monday, Israeli worshipers from the Arab Triangle and the Galilee towns are also expected to arrive at Al-Aqsa in organized transportation. On Friday, tens of thousands are expected to try and reach the mosque for prayer.
The head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haniyeh called “for our families and our people to break the siege on Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first day of the month of Ramadan.”
ما يحفظ ماء وجهك يا هنية..
بعدما كانوا يقولون أن عملية السنوار ستحرر الأقصى وتعيد كل الأسرى صار الهدف هو إيقاف العدوان وانسحاب الاحتلال مقابل مرونة في تحرير المختطفين الاسرائيليين..
تأكيد عملي من #حماس أن ما حدث في السابع من أكتوبر مغامرة غبية من مختل خدمت كل مخططات المحتل الذي… pic.twitter.com/crfMwLzF5K— أنور مالك (@anwarmalek) March 10, 2024
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who sits in Beirut, asked in a statement that the PA and Israeli Arabs “ascend to the Al-Aqsa Mosque every day and confront the Israeli security forces. We call on the people of the nation to take advantage of the month of Ramadan to push to save our people from death in Gaza.”
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said on Sunday, “The month of Ramadan is the month of terror and fear of the Zionist entity. We call for all forms of resistance to be activated on all fronts and to see the blessed month of Ramadan as the month of the global flood.”
As you may recall, “Al-Aqsa Flood” was the name Hamas gave the October 7, 2023 atrocities.
