<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered the compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem earlier today, prompting condemnations from the US, Palestinians and several Arab countries, including those who have inked peace treaties with Israel.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Any unilateral action that jeopardises status quo of Jerusalem holy sites is unacceptable, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said on Tuesday following the visit that Palestinians labelled as an “unprecedented provocation”.</div><div><br></div><div>“The United States stands firmly for preservation of the status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,” the spokesperson said, adding the United States calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to preserve his commitment to the status quo of holy sites.</div><div><br></div><div>Netanyahu issued a statement late on Tuesday claiming he “is committed to strictly maintaining the status quo, without changes, on the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Compound].”</div><div><br></div><div>“Under the status quo, ministers have gone up to the Temple Mount in recent years, therefore, the claim that a change has been made in the status quo is without foundation,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Ben-Gvir was seen at the site on Tuesday under heavy security.</div><div><br></div><div>“Our government will not surrender to the threats of Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement published by his spokesman, after the Palestinian group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip warned that such a move would cross a “red line”.</div><div><br></div><div>Ben-Gvir has long called for greater Jewish access to the holy site, which is viewed by Palestinians as provocative and as a potential precursor to Israel taking complete control over the compound. Leading rabbis forbid Jews from praying on the site.</div><div><br></div><div>Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter after his visit that the site “is open to all and if Hamas thinks that if it threatens me it will deter me, they should understand that times have changed”.</div><div><br></div><div>Ofir Gendelman, who has long served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesman, released a video saying that the “situation is completely calm” at the holy site following Ben-Gvir’s departure.</div><div><br></div><div>The visit appears to have been calculated to avoid a direct confrontation with Palestinians, having come early in the morning, and a day after Ben-Gvir had appeared to backtrack from his plans, thereby avoiding a gathering of Palestinians at the site. Source: Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>