麻豆社

Israel's new national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, courted controversy when he visited a contested holy site in Jerusalem.

The hard-right leader, who has called for a harder line towards the Palestinians, visited the hilltop site known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of two Biblical temples, and to Muslims as the site of Muhammad's ascent to Heaven and the al-Aqsa Mosque by Muslims. Competing claims to the compound bitterly divide Israel and the Palestinians.

Mr Ben-Gvir's spokesman Yishai Fleischer told Newshour's Razia Iqbal why the minister went to the Temple Mount, a move which the Palestinian authorities have condemned as an "unprecedented provocation".

(Photo shows Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power party. Credit:
Atef Safadi/EPA)