The new Israeli Minister of National Security and figure of the far right, Itamar Ben Gvir, went early Tuesday January 3 to the esplanade of the Mosques, a holy place at the heart of tensions in East Jerusalem, despite threats made by the Palestinian Hamas.
"
Our government will not give in to Hamas
' threats," Itamar Ben Gvir said after the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the minister's intention to visit the esplanade "a
prelude to an escalation in the region
”.
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The third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism known as the "
Temple Mount
", the esplanade is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the Palestinian sector occupied and annexed by Israel.
Under a historical status quo, non-Muslims can go there at specific times but cannot pray there.
However, in recent years, a growing number of Jews, often nationalists, surreptitiously pray there, a gesture denounced as a “
provocation
” by the Palestinians.
Itamar Ben Gvir, who went there several times when he was an MP, had announced his intention to go there as minister.