Nearly 2,800 Jews Visit Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av

A total of 2,784 Jews visited the Temple Mount (Har Habayit) during Thursday morning’s Tisha B’Av visiting hours, according to the Temple Mount Administration, marking a 10% increase from last year. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf were among those who entered the site.

MKs Sharren Haskel and Nissim Vaturi also visited during the fast commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The morning drew particular attention after Jewish visitors were filmed openly praying, putting on tefillin and raising an Israeli flag on the Mount.

Ben Gvir arrived in the early morning accompanied by a security detail. “On Tisha B’Av, we mark the destruction. But we are also seeing tremendous progress on the Temple Mount,” he said. “Look at what is happening here — Jews are praying and feel like the owners of the place. This has never happened here before.”

Footage published from the site showed several visitors wearing tefillin during their tour. Activists from the Israel Forever movement, led by attorney Nili Nahori, also displayed an Israeli flag on the Mount. 

The Beyadenu organization welcomed the scenes and called for a permanent Israeli flag at the site. “Two thousand years after we went into exile and lost Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem, the time has come for the flag to fly from a tall mast over the site of the Temple on the Temple Mount,” the organization said.

The visits took place amid an ongoing halachic dispute over entering the Temple Mount. Many leading rabbis prohibit entry, citing concerns that visitors could enter areas considered forbidden under Jewish law because of the site’s sanctity and current ritual-purity limitations.

Other rabbis permit Jews to visit specific sections of the Mount after immersing in a mikveh and following detailed halachic instructions. Recent discussion of comments attributed to the Amshinover Rebbe also generated interest among some Charedi Jews, although the remarks concerned entry into certain outer areas and were not presented as a general endorsement of visiting the site.

The Prime Minister’s Office has previously maintained that Israel’s official policy governing the Temple Mount has not changed. It did not immediately issue a response to Thursday’s events.

No immediate unrest was reported following the morning visits. Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount and visits by senior government officials remain disputed within Israel because of the halachic disagreement and the site’s continuing political sensitivity.