Israeli minister visits contentious holy site as more Gazans are killed seeking aid

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — A far-right Israeli minister visited and prayed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Sunday, triggering regional condemnation and fears that the provocative move could further escalate tensions with Palestinians.

The visit came as hospitals in Gaza reported that 33 more Palestinians seeking food aid were killed by Israeli fire.

With Israel already facing global criticism over famine-like conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip, the visit by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the hillside compound threatened to further set back efforts by international mediators to halt Israel’s nearly two-year military offensive in the territory.

The area, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and was home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims call the site the Noble Sanctuary, and today it is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Visits are considered a provocation across the Muslim world, and openly praying violates a long-standing protocol at the combustible site.

Under that protocol, Jews have been allowed to tour the site but are barred from praying, with Israeli police and troops providing security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after Ben-Gvir’s visit that Israel would not change the norms governing the site.

Ben-Gvir made the stop after Hamas’ release of videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused an uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home from Gaza the remaining hostages who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, in the attack that triggered the war.

During his visit to the hilltop compound, Ben-Gvir called for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and encourage Palestinians to leave, reviving rhetoric that has complicated negotiations to end the war. He raged against a video that Hamas released Saturday of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David showing him skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel. He called it an attempt to pressure Israel.

Ben-Gvir’s previous visits to the site have been explosive and prompted threats from Palestinian militant groups. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators in and around the site fueled an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.

His Sunday visit was swiftly condemned as an incitement by Palestinian leaders as well as Jordan — custodian of Al Aqsa Mosque — Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Houthi rebels in Yemen said they fired three drones at Israel; Israel’s military said a “suspicious aerial target launched from Yemen” was intercepted.

Videos of Israeli hostages

Israel’s mission to the U.N. said it requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the hostages held in Gaza, which will take place Tuesday.

Israel has been jolted in recent days by videos of hostages with their faces hollow, ribs protruding and bodies ravaged by hunger.

The videos — released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza — triggered outrage across the political spectrum in Israel. Tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday urging Israel and the United States to urgently pursue their release after suspending ceasefire talks.

“In this new video, his eyes are extinguished. He is helpless, and so am I,” Tami Braslavski, the mother of one of the hostages, Rom Braslavski, said in a statement.

“They do not want a deal,” Netanyahu said of Hamas. “They want to break us using these videos of horror.”

His office said it spoke with the Red Cross to seek help in providing the hostages with food and medical care. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “appalled by the harrowing videos” and called for access to the hostages.

Hamas’ military wing said it was ready to respond positively to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors are opened in a “regular and permanent manner” in Gaza.

Right-wing politicians who have opposed deals with Hamas said the videos reinforced their conviction that the militant group must be obliterated.

“From here we need to bring a message and ensure that from today, we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over all of the Gaza Strip, take out every Hamas member and encourage voluntary emigration,” Ben-Gvir said on a video posted on social media after his visit to the holy site.

Food distribution chaos

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said a staff member was killed when Israeli forces shelled its office. Israel’s military said it was reviewing the claim. The Red Cross called it an “outrage” that so many first responders have been killed in the war.

Hospital officials said Israeli forces killed at least 33 Palestinians seeking food Sunday, and witnesses described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged toward aid sites.

Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts warn faces “a worst-case scenario of famine” because of Israel’s blockade. No aid entered Gaza between March 2 and May 19, and aid has been limited since then.

Yousef Abed, among the people seeking aid, described coming under indiscriminate fire, seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground.

“I couldn’t stop and help them because of the bullets,” he said.

Two hospitals in southern and central Gaza reported receiving bodies from routes leading to U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, including 11 killed in the Teina area en route to a distribution point in Khan Yunis.

Three Palestinian witnesses, including one traveling through Teina, told the Associated Press they saw soldiers open fire on the routes, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. Israel’s military said it was not aware of casualties as a result of its gunfire near aid sites. The foundation’s media office said there was no gunfire “near or at our sites.”

The United Nations reported that 859 people were killed near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites from May 27 to July 31 and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of U.N.-led food convoys.

The foundation says its armed contractors have used only pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel’s military has said it fires only warning shots as well. Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated.

More deaths from starvation

Gaza’s Health Ministry said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours. It said Sunday’s casualties brought the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 over the five weeks that such deaths have been counted. Ninety-three children have died of causes related to malnutrition since the war began, the ministry said.

Israel has taken steps in the past week to increase the flow of food into Gaza, saying 1,200 aid trucks have entered while hundreds of pallets have been airdropped, but U.N. and relief groups say conditions have not improved. The U.N. has said 500 to 600 trucks a day are needed.

Anger has led to protests overseas, including one in Australia on Sunday attended by thousands.

About 1,200 people were killed in the 2003 attack that sparked the war and 251 others were taken hostage. Hamas is still holding 50 captives, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead are women and children, is staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn’t provided its own account of casualties.

Shurafa, Metz and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Deir al Balah, Jerusalem and Cairo, respectively. AP writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the U.N. contributed to this report.