Hamas says in a statement that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount was “a deliberately provocative move that reflects the fascist thinking of the Israeli government.”
The statement adds that the visit, which took place on the same date as the Temple Mount riots (“the Al-Aqsa massacre,” as Hamas calls it) on October 8, 1990, was a hostile message meant to impose control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The visit also took place the day after the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza. The terror group called that attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
The visit came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators are in Egypt for indirect talks on the return of the hostages, release of Palestinian security prisoners, and a ceasefire, as part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
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