JERUSALEM, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday visited the flashpoint holy site Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in East Jerusalem, which was denounced by the Palestinian side as a provocation.
Israel's state-owned Kan TV news showed pictures of the minister touring the site escorted by personal guards and police forces. "Our government will not give in to Hamas threats," Ben-Gvir said at the site.
The visit followed "a situation assessment meeting with the police chief, commander of the Jerusalem police and head of the Shin Bet internal security agency," according to his statement.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the visit, the first by an Israeli minister in nearly five years, as an "unprecedented provocation," Kan reported.
On Monday, Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned that the visit might spark violence.
"It is a deliberate provocation that will put lives in danger and cost lives," Lapid said in a statement.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, said on Monday that it "won't sit idly by" in the wake of the visit and denounced it as "another example of the arrogance of the settler government and their future plans to damage and divide Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Ben-Gvir, known as an ultra-nationalist, was sworn in as Israel's national security minister last week, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new extreme-right coalition government took office.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to the Jewish people as the Temple Mount, is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. For Muslims, it is considered the third holiest site located inside the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem holy site has been administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian body, since 1948. After Israel took over Jerusalem in 1967, it was obliged to respect the status quo and not to make any changes to the laws and institutions in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to a 1967 agreement between Israel and Jordan, non-Muslim worshippers can visit Al-Aqsa Mosque compound but are prohibited from praying there. ■
