Israel just declared it owns Al-Aqsa Mosque and shut down Palestinian shops to prove it

Israel's National Security Minister just walked into Al-Aqsa Mosque and said he owns it.

Itamar Ben-Gvir went into the compound this morning with a group the Jerusalem Governorate says was around 1,200 people.

It's Sukkot right now, the Jewish holiday that runs until 2 October.

And here's what he said once he was inside. Middle East Eye, working straight from the Jerusalem Governorate, has him saying: "we are the ones in charge on the Temple Mount... We are the ones in charge in the prisons." Al Jazeera and Anadolu's translation is worded slightly differently, but says the same thing: Ben-Gvir claiming Israel controls the site, and controls Palestinian prisoners.

So what is this place? Al-Aqsa sits inside a walled compound that Jews call the Temple Mount, because they believe two ancient temples once stood there. For decades, the whole 14.4-hectare site has been run day to day by the Jordanian-appointed Islamic Waqf, and it's recognised as an exclusively Islamic holy site. Since 2003, Israeli police have let non-Muslim groups in most days. But non-Muslims praying there has always been restricted, because of how easily it sparks confrontation.

Ben-Gvir keeps testing that line. He's gone into the compound again and again since he took office in 2022 — including a week ago, during Yom Kippur. That time, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said the visit broke the existing historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa and amounted to a desecration of its sanctity. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said it was a clear violation and a provocation to Muslims everywhere. Worth being clear: those statements were about that earlier visit. Nobody from Jordan or Saudi Arabia has said anything about today yet.

Today wasn't even the only big incursion this week. A day earlier, around 1,500 people went into the compound, led by Amit Halevi, a member of Israel's parliament for the Likud party — not Ben-Gvir. Some wire reports have blurred the two days together and put Ben-Gvir in that 1,500-strong group. But the Jerusalem Governorate's own account, reported directly by Middle East Eye, keeps them separate: Halevi led the earlier group. Ben-Gvir joined a different, smaller group of at least 1,200 people the next day.

Inside the compound this morning, Al Jazeera reported Israelis dancing in circles and singing in the courtyards.

Outside it, Palestinian life got rearranged to make space. Dozens of shops, cafés and restaurants in the Cotton Merchants Market were ordered shut so Jewish worshippers could pray without passing trade around them — more than 50 of them, says Middle East Eye. Anadolu counts 56. Traders say this is the first time they've been told to stay closed for the entire holiday, rather than just a few hours at a time. And around 200 Palestinians living along the route worshippers use were told not to leave their homes during prayer times.

Tal Hassin, a lawyer with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said the police were turning things upside down, and called for the closure orders to be cancelled immediately.

The Jerusalem Governorate condemned the incursion itself, saying the rituals inside broke the status quo and amounted to an attempt to force a new religious reality onto the site.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian presidential spokesperson, called it "playing with fire" and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world. He said Israel was trying to start a religious war.

So far, no Palestinian faction has done anything beyond issue statements. And no fresh word yet from Jordan or Saudi Arabia about today specifically — their strongest language on record is still about the earlier visit.

Ben-Gvir has done this before and faced words, not consequences. Sukkot runs for four more days. Whether that holds again is the open question nobody has answered yet.