National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ascended Har Habayit on Yom Yerushalayim and declared, “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” after raising the Israeli flag at the holy site.

“We have restored sovereignty to the Temple Mount thanks to determination and deterrence,” Ben Gvir said. “This year was the quietest Ramadan, and it came thanks to deterrence. The Temple Mount is in our hands!”

For decades, Jews were either barred entirely from ascending Har Habayit or heavily restricted by Israeli police. Even those permitted to enter were often forbidden from praying, singing, or openly displaying Jewish religious practices on the mount.

In recent years, those restrictions have gradually eased, with more Jewish visitors openly praying and singing at the site under heightened security.

Just one day earlier, JBN cameras caught Ben Gvir entering the Arab city of Sakhnin in northern Israel surrounded by a heavy ten man security detail.

Har Habayit remains one of the most sensitive and contested religious sites in the world, sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

The site has also been at the center of major historical flashpoints. In September 2000, then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in a move that sparked massive Palestinian riots and was widely seen as one of the main triggers of the Second Intifada, a violent uprising that lasted for years and claimed thousands of lives