JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s far-right national security minister visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday, a move that could derail delicate Gaza ceasefire talks.
Ultranationalist settler leader Itamar Ben Gvir said he had climbed Jerusalem’s disputed hilltop Al-Aqsa mosque to pray for the hostages’ return, but “without making any reckless deals or surrendering.”
The move threatens to derail delicate talks aimed at a ceasefire in the nine-month-old Israel-Hamas war. An Israeli team of negotiators arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to continue the talks.
The visit comes just days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves for the United States to address parliament.
Standing in front of the golden dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ben Gvir said he was “praying and working hard” for Netanyahu to resist international pressure and continue the military operation in Gaza.
Ben Gvir last visited the site in May to protest against countries’ unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state.
He has been convicted eight times for crimes including racism and supporting terrorist organisations, and as a teenager, his views were so extreme that the army barred him from mandatory military service.
As security minister, Ben-Gvir oversees the country’s police and, as the main partner in a governing coalition, has the power to strip Netanyahu of his parliamentary majority and force early elections.
Ben Gvir has used his influence to push forward his pet projects and urge Netanyahu to continue the Gaza war amid widespread calls for a ceasefire that would bring the hostages home.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Ben Gvir’s visit as a “provocative incursion” that endangered the fragile status quo at the Jerusalem hilltop site considered holy to both Muslims and Jews.
The site is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, a holy site and an important national symbol. Frequently visited the site They are criticized in times of conflict. Tensions over the complex It has fuelled a string of violent acts in the past.
The Israeli parliament overwhelmingly rejected the creation of a Palestinian state in an overnight session that stretched into Thursday morning, in a vote that was largely symbolic and intended to send a message ahead of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the United States.
The United Nations’ International Court of Justice is expected to issue an advisory opinion on Friday on the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories, a case unrelated to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
At least 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza overnight on Thursday, according to a Hamas-run civil defense organization and hospital. At least two children and two women were killed in strikes on a home and a car.
Israel has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on the central Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians have fled to escape fighting in other parts of the embattled region. The Israeli military said its attacks targeted a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad naval commander in Gaza City and another Islamic Jihad commander in charge of launching missiles in the city of Shejaiya.
Israel also announced the killing of a senior commander with ties to Lebanon’s Hamas and other militant groups. The Sunni Al-Jamaat al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) said in a statement that he was identified as Mohammed Hamed Jabara and killed in an attack in Lebanon’s western Bekaa region, not far from the Syrian border. The Israeli military said Jabara was a Lebanese Hamas operative who helped coordinate the Islamic group’s attacks on targets in northern Israel.
The war in Gaza, which began with an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has wreaked a humanitarian disaster in the coastal Palestinian territories, displacing most of the region’s 2.3 million residents and sparking widespread famine.
Hamas’ October offensive killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and the militants took about 250 hostages. Israeli officials say about 120 people remain in captivity, about a third of whom are believed to have died.
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Associated Press writer Kareem Shehaieb in Beirut contributed to this report.
