Some 250 Jews visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, according to Palestinian media.

The Palestinian Authority’s official WAFA news agency reported that some of the visitors “performed Talmudic rituals,” likely meaning they were performing religious practices or praying, under heavy police protection.

Some of the Jewish visitors to the site also “raised Israeli flags” on the mount, according to the English-language Saudi outlet Arab News.

Non-Muslim prayer had until recently been forbidden atop the Temple Mount — known in Islam as Haram al-Sharif — due to a string of agreements generally known as the “status quo” between Israel and Jordan, which administers the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.

Under the status quo, only Muslims are permitted to worship on the Temple Mount itself, while Jews pray at the Western Wall, revered as a remnant of the Second Temple. Israel maintains overall security at the site, but the Islamic Waqf administers religious activities there.

In the past, police would eject or detain Jewish visitors caught praying at the site, but the policy has largely fallen by the wayside over the past several years under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has........

© The Times of Israel