Ben-Gvir declares Temple Mount triumph, calls for Hamas defeat

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Wednesday, declaring victory at the holiest site in Judaism two years after the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist invasion of the northwestern Negev.

“We are two years after the terrible massacre—here at the Temple Mount there is victory, in every house in Gaza there is a picture of the Temple Mount, and we today, two years later, are victorious at the Temple Mount,” the head of the Oztma Yehudit Party said.

“We are the masters of the Temple Mount. I only pray that our prime minister will allow a complete victory in Gaza as well—to destroy Hamas, with God’s help to bring back the hostages, and we will achieve a total victory,” Ben-Gvir continued.

Almost 70,000 Jews ascended the holy site in the Hebrew year 5785, a 22% increase compared to the previous year and a modern-day record, the Beyadenu—Returning to the Temple Mount activist group stated on Sept. 24.

According to the Israeli advocacy group, 68,429 Jewish worshippers entered Judaism’s holiest site since the previous Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, on Oct. 2, 2024. In 5784, 56,057 visited the site.

During this year’s Rosh Hashanah, which was celebrated from Sept. 22 to 24,897 Jews ascended, up from 485 during the holiday in 2024.

“The Jewish public seeks to celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the Temple Mount, the holiest site for the Jewish people, with prayers and joy,” said Akiva Ariel, Beyadenu’s head of public relations.

Noting that five Jews were arrested on the Temple Mount for blowing the shofar, a ram’s horn used to carry out the biblical commandment of Rosh Hashanah, he accused Israeli authorities of a “severe violation of Jewish freedom of worship.

“We will continue to act until this discrimination is abolished and equal rights are guaranteed for all worshippers on the Mount,” Ariel said.

Under Ben-Gvir’s leadership, the Temple Mount has seen a surge in visits by Jews, especially on holidays such as Tisha B’Av, the national day of mourning marked this year on Aug. 2-3.

Ben-Gvir and Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s minister for the development of the periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, were among the some 4,000 Jews who visited the Temple Mount and prayed there on Tisha B’Av this year.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, however, emphasized on Tisha B’Av that Jerusalem’s policy of maintaining the status quo that forbids Jewish prayer and practice at Judaism’s holiest site “has not changed and will not change.”

In August, the Palestinian Authority condemned attempts by Jewish activist groups to sound the shofar on the Temple Mount, calling the ram’s horn a “dangerous tool” used by Israel to assert sovereignty.

The P.A.’s Jerusalem Governorate warned in a statement that the Jewish tradition of sounding the shofar is “no longer a passing religious ritual, but has become one of the most dangerous tools of the occupation to impose its alleged sovereignty.”