Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling for the full annexation of the Gaza Strip. The move drew sharp condemnation from Arab and Islamic nations as Israel’s war in the enclave drags on.

Video footage posted by the Jewish organization Temple Mount Administration showed Ben Gvir and a group of Israelis praying in front of the mosque according to Al Arabiya. The mosque sits atop the Western Wall and is part of the Temple Mount — a site considered sacred by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The visit marked another escalation by Ben-Gvir, whose presence at the holy site was seen as a violation of longstanding agreements and religious norms. Under an agreement between Israel and Jordan — which administers the compound as a Waqf — Jews are permitted to visit the site but prohibited from praying there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu’s office affirmed on Sunday that the agreement was still in place and would not change the decades-long status quo.

The Waqf said that 1,250 Israelis prayed alongside Gvir during the storming.

In a video posted on X, Ben-Gvir used the incident to call for Israel to “conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over the entire Gaza Strip, take down every Hamas member, and encourage voluntary migration.” 

The post came after Hamas released a video of a starving Israeli hostage. Ben Gvir also called for the release of the remaining 50 hostages held in Gaza.

The move was met with swift backlash from regional leaders and international organizations.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit, with spokesperson Sufian Qudah stating “that such actions constitute a clear breach of the historical and legal status quo of the mosque and represent an attempt to divide it temporally and spatially, and a desecration of its sanctity,” according to Jordanian state media.

The spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said it “crossed all red lines.”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also denounced the move. “The OIC holds the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the consequences of the continuation of these systematic attacks, which provoke the feelings of Muslims worldwide and threaten security and stability in the region,” it said in a statement.

Sunday’s visit was not Ben-Gvir’s first to the site — nor his most provocative. In May, he led a similar storming of the compound during the annual Jerusalem Day March, which commemorates Israel’s 1967 takeover of East Jerusalem during the Arab-Israeli War.

Ben Gvir, a staunch extremist in Israeli politics, has repeatedly called for the annexation of Gaza and the displacement of its Palestinian population. Alongside far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he has advocated for Israel to take full control of Palestinian territory.

In January, Ben Gvir briefly resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet after a ceasefire was reached with Hamas, only to return in March once the ceasefire collapsed.

Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich were sanctioned by Slovenia in June for their “genocidal” statements against Palestinians.