Hamas Slams Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount During Rosh Hashanah
Hamas official Ha’arun Nasser al-Din condemned Jewish visits to the Temple Mount during Rosh Hashanah as a “dangerous escalation,” urging Palestinians to counter with protests and prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The group’s weakened military position has shifted its focus to mobilizing demonstrations, amid ongoing tensions over the site’s status quo.
Hamas official Ha’arun Nasser al-Din, who oversees Jerusalem affairs, has issued a sharp warning against what he called “settler incitement” to increase Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, during the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday on September 22, 2025. In a public statement, Nasser al-Din labeled these visits a “dangerous escalation” and an attempt to disrupt the longstanding status quo at the site, which restricts Jewish prayer to preserve Muslim worship rights under a delicate arrangement managed by the Jordanian Waqf. He framed the Jewish presence as part of a broader “religious war” targeting Islamic holy sites, intensifying tensions around one of the most contested religious locations in the world.
Nasser al-Din urged Palestinians in Jerusalem, Israel, and Judea and Samaria to flock to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, pray, and maintain a presence to “not abandon it to the settlers.” This call to action reflects Hamas’s shift in strategy amid its weakened military capacity in Gaza, where ongoing conflict since October 7, 2023, has limited its ability to launch rocket attacks as leverage against Israel’s policies on the Temple Mount. Instead, Hamas has sought to mobilize mass protests and potentially violent confrontations, though these efforts have yielded limited results, with turnout often falling short of expectations due to tightened Israeli security measures and internal Palestinian divisions.
The Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the site of the ancient First and Second Temples and by Muslims as the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, has long been a flashpoint. Jewish visits, strictly regulated and often escorted by Israeli police, have increased in recent years, with over 50,000 Jewish visitors recorded in 2024, prompting accusations from Palestinian groups of attempts to “Judaize” the site despite the fact the Jewish holy site was built there long before any Muslim one. Israeli authorities maintain that the status quo, in place since 1967, remains unchanged, allowing Jewish visits but prohibiting prayer. Hamas’s statement comes amid heightened regional tensions, including Israel’s planned Gaza City offensive, further complicating the delicate balance at the holy site.