Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound early Sunday, leading roughly 1,250 Jewish visitors on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av. Footage released by the Temple Mount Administration and corroborated by the Jordanian-run Waqf showed the minister reciting prayers inside the contested site, defying a decades-old arrangement that bars non-Muslim worship there. The visit prompted swift condemnation from Arab governments and Palestinian officials. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry called the act a “flagrant violation” of the historic status quo, while a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the incursion “crossed all red lines.” Similar rebukes were issued by Saudi Arabia and other regional capitals. No immediate clashes were reported, but previous challenges to the rules governing the compound have ignited wider unrest. Ben-Gvir said he prayed for Israel’s victory over Hamas and reiterated calls for Israel to conquer the Gaza Strip and encourage the enclave’s residents to leave—remarks that risk further complicating cease-fire efforts in the nearly two-year-old Gaza war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed that Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo at the site “has not changed and will not change,” seeking to ease diplomatic fallout even as tensions around the holy site remain high.