On Thursday, a coalition of eight foreign ministers from key Arab and Muslim-majority nations issued a harsh rebuke of recent large-scale incursions by Israeli ultranationalist settlers and officials into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, labeling the provocative actions illegal and dangerous extremist acts. The joint statement, shared publicly via Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the social platform X, builds on widespread international outrage over a mass raid staged earlier that same day, which drew thousands of far-right Israeli participants and was openly led by sitting cabinet ministers and members of parliament from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
Among the high-profile Israeli figures who took part in the incursion were Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister; Yitzhak Wasserlauf, the minister in charge of the Negev, Galilee and national resilience portfolio; and Amit Halevi, a sitting lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Ahead of the raid, Israeli security forces imposed restrictions that blocked hundreds of Palestinian worshippers from accessing the mosque compound for traditional pre-dawn prayers, forcing many to hold prayer services in adjacent streets outside the holy site.
The joint statement from the foreign ministers of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia emphasized that the storming of Al-Aqsa represents a blatant violation of international law, binding United Nations resolutions, and the long-standing historic and legal status quo that has governed the holy site in Occupied East Jerusalem for decades. The group issued its strongest possible condemnation not only of the incursions themselves, but also of the public incitement and mobilization calls that preceded the raid, as well as the ongoing violent provocations carried out by sitting Israeli government ministers and extremist nationalist groups.
In their warning, the ministers stressed that repeated incursions and provocative actions at the sensitive holy site fuel religious animosity, embolden extremism across the region, and directly undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a just, lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict built on the internationally supported two-state solution. The group also formally called for global recognition of Jordan’s long-standing historic custodianship over the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and rejected both Israel’s claims of sovereignty over Occupied East Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, as well as ongoing Israeli efforts to forcibly alter the area’s historical, legal, and demographic character.
The decades-old status quo agreement for the Al-Aqsa compound, a arrangement forged after the 1967 Six-Day War, outlines a clear governing structure: the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf, an Islamic charitable trust, retains full authority over all internal religious and administrative affairs of the site, while Israel controls external security access to the compound. Under the terms of this agreement, non-Muslim visitors are permitted to tour the site during scheduled visiting hours, but are strictly prohibited from holding any form of non-Islamic prayer on the grounds. In recent years, however, the site has seen a sharp escalation in settler incursions, most of which are carried out with armed military escort from Israeli security forces.
This latest diplomatic push comes amid previously unreported plans, first revealed by independent outlet Middle East Eye, that the U.S. and Israel are actively working to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship of the Al-Aqsa compound. According to sources familiar with the proposal, which is championed by former White House advisor Jared Kushner and current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, the existing authority of the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf would be dissolved entirely, and a new Israeli-government appointed body would reclassify the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a multi-faith site, bringing management of the holy site fully in line with Israeli government interests. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied the existence of such a plan, but has declined to explicitly reaffirm U.S. recognition of Jordan’s long-standing custodianship over the site.