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Ben-Gvir Joined by Thousands for Prayer at Temple Mount
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks at a convention in Jerusalem, Jan. 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – On the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of the First and Second Temples, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ascended the Temple Mount, joining thousands of Jewish visitors expected to visit and pray throughout the day.
Under Ben-Gvir’s policy, Israeli police have allowed Jewish visitors to sing, pray in the eastern section of the mount, and even prostrate, a significant shift from the longstanding status quo that prohibits overt Jewish worship at the flashpoint site.
Videos from Sunday morning showed dozens of Jewish worshippers singing and dancing openly on the mount. Police did not intervene. In one incident, an Arab man who shouted at a group of Jewish visitors was removed and arrested by security forces.
Associates of Ben-Gvir hailed the moment as “a monumental change that hasn’t happened in a thousand years,” adding that his policy is to ensure freedom of worship for Jews at all sites in Israel, including the Temple Mount. “There is no law permitting racist discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount or anywhere else in Israel,” they said.
The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest. It houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The site remains one of the most sensitive and contested in the region, with tensions often flaring over perceived changes to the fragile status quo.
Ben-Gvir’s visits and policies have drawn sharp criticism from Arab states, international actors, and Israel’s own security establishment, which has warned that shifts in worship policy at the site could inflame tensions and endanger national security. The move has also been condemned by ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders, who oppose visiting the site on religious grounds.
Despite the criticism, Ben-Gvir has maintained that Jewish worship at the Temple Mount is a matter of basic rights and national sovereignty.
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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.