Ben-Gvir and Smotrich Lead Thousands of Israelis Into Al-Aqsa Compound Over Sukkot, Arab States Condemn

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, September 27, and again on Monday, September 28, joined by hundreds to well over a thousand Israelis each day, according to the Jerusalem Governorate and the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The incursions came during Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, which runs from September 26 through October 2, following Rosh Hashanah on September 12-13 and Yom Kippur on September 21-22, according to Anadolu Agency.

On Sunday, 1,143 Israelis entered through the Mughrabi Gate, according to the Jerusalem Governorate as reported by Anadolu. Ben-Gvir was filmed at the Buraq Wall, the western portion of the compound Jews call the Temple Mount, performing Talmudic rituals and holding a Torah scroll, footage first broadcast by Israeli radio station Kol Barama.

On Monday, Al Jazeera reported roughly 900 Israelis entered in the morning under police protection, while L'Orient-Le Jour, citing Wafa, put the day's total at 1,731, with both Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich present. The Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces closed intersections and streets around the Old City to allow the visits.

What Ben-Gvir and Smotrich said

"We are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa and in the prisons, and we have turned the lives of terrorist prisoners into hell," Ben-Gvir said Monday, according to Al Jazeera. "The people of Israel are on the path to absolute victory, and today we pray in Al-Aqsa, which is the most important place for the Jewish people."

L'Orient-Le Jour reported Ben-Gvir went further, declaring Israel now "master of the Temple Mount" and invoking Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, which Israel calls "Al-Aqsa Deluge." "Hamas wanted to defeat us. Today, we are the masters of the Temple Mount," he said.

Smotrich, also on the compound Monday, called to "go to war in Judea-Samaria" and "do there what we have done in Gaza," according to comments reported by the Israeli outlet Ynet and relayed by L'Orient-Le Jour. He said he wants no more "terrorists, weapons [or] tunnels" in the West Bank and called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, which he labeled a "terrorist authority." He separately reaffirmed a goal of Israeli annexation stretching from Gaza's so-called yellow line to Lebanon's Litani River.

Palestinian shops closed, worshippers restricted

Dozens of Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City's Cotton Merchants Market were ordered to close during the holiday to make way for Jewish prayers, according to a statement from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an Israeli civil-liberties group. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the incursions a dangerous provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world, warning Israel risked igniting a "religious war," according to Al Jazeera.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Fouad Al-Majali said the incursions were "a flagrant violation of international law" and "blatant violation of the established historical and legal status quo," insisting Israel "has no sovereignty over occupied Jerusalem or its Islamic and Christian holy sites," according to Jordan News. Jordan's Waqf department, which Amman says holds exclusive legal jurisdiction over the site, was cited as the proper administering authority.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Muslim World League separately condemned an earlier incursion this month involving more than 3,200 settlers, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, which reported the Gulf states' statements were issued around September 20-21. Qatar's Foreign Ministry warned repeated incursions "could increase tensions, undermine de-escalation efforts and threaten regional stability."

The numbers behind the pattern

Since 2003, Israeli police have permitted organized groups of Israelis to enter the Al-Aqsa compound daily except Fridays and Saturdays, according to Al Jazeera. From January through August 2026, 40,661 Israelis entered the compound while Israeli authorities issued roughly 800 entry bans against Palestinians from Jerusalem over the same period, according to the Jerusalem Governorate as reported by Wafa and cited by L'Orient-Le Jour.

Israel restricted Eid al-Fitr prayers at Al-Aqsa earlier this year to 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank, a territory home to roughly 3.3 million people, according to Al Jazeera.

Defenders of the visits, including Ben-Gvir's own public statements, frame them as the exercise of Jewish prayer rights at a site central to Jewish religious history, conducted under police escort rather than force. Critics, including the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and the Gulf states named above, argue the visits by sitting government ministers, backed by police closures that shut Palestinian businesses and streets, go beyond individual worship and amount to an attempt to alter the site's status as governed by Jordan's Waqf since 1967.

The next flashpoint falls October 3, when Simchat Torah closes out the current holiday cycle. Whether Ben-Gvir and Smotrich lead another round of visits, and whether Arab governments move beyond statements of condemnation, remains unanswered as of this writing.