(ANSA) - TEL AVIV, JAN 03 - Benyamin Netanyahu is engaged "in the meticulous defense and without any change of the status quo on the Temple Mount, and he will not surrender to the diktats of Hamas": said a source in the prime minister's office, commenting on the reactions to the visit of Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
"In the context of the status quo - continued the source - in recent years other ministers have climbed the Temple Mount more than once, and among them also the minister for internal security Gilad Erdan" (Likud, ed).
The claims about a change in the status quo - he concluded - are therefore unfounded ". (ANSA).