Israel Keeps Al-Aqsa Closed Ten Days While Temple Groups Call To Slaughter Passover Animals Inside

Israeli forces entered the Al‑Aqsa Mosque compound hours after the US and Israel launched a military offensive against Iran on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.

“In a statement, the Jerusalem Governorate warned of the dangerous incitement carried out by so-called extremist “Temple” organizations amid the continued closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for ten consecutive days”

- IMEMC News

They forcibly removed Palestinian worshippers and imposed a full closure under a stated state of emergency.

- IMEMC News

The closure covered ten days during a period when extremist Temple organizations were actively calling to keep the site shut until the end of the war with Iran, creating a deliberate, coercive restriction on Muslim worship at one of Islam’s holiest sites.

This action occurred amid warnings that Israel’s right‑wing government and extremist groups share an aim to divide the Al‑Aqsa compound "temporally and spatially."

Extremist Temple groups pushed beyond calls for closure and into explicit sacrificial demands.

They lobbied to perform Passover animal sacrifices inside the Noble Sanctuary and used AI-generated images and clips to mobilize supporters and normalize that violation.

Al-Jazeera Net

Those organizing campaigns openly promoted forcing ritual slaughter into the compound during April's Passover, framing it alongside demands to keep the mosque shut during the last ten nights of Ramadan and Eid to assert control over access and ritual timing.

Observers described these moves as escalatory attempts to alter the site's religious practices by force.

Palestinian authorities labeled the campaign a dangerous escalation and part of a broader political and ideological effort to overturn the religious, historical and legal status of the Noble Sanctuary.

“In a statement, the Jerusalem Governorate warned of the dangerous incitement carried out by so-called extremist “Temple” organizations amid the continued closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for ten consecutive days”

- IMEMC News

The Jerusalem Governorate warned that this is not merely sporadic provocation but a coordinated push, backed by organized Temple bodies, to replace or fundamentally transform Al-Aqsa's status, prompting alarm among Palestinians who see an orchestrated attempt to erase Muslim custodianship and control.

The timing, amid a regional military offensive and imposed closures, magnified fears of forcible dispossession.

The governorate pointed to concrete precedents for these threats in 2025, noting unprecedented incidents in which three attempts were made to bring a small animal or its meat into Al‑Aqsa, acts intended to normalize sacrificial practice inside the sanctuary.

Palestinians continued to resist the imposed restrictions, with footage showing Palestinian women praying in Jerusalem despite the closure, demonstrations of both defiance and the human cost of access denial.

Al-Jazeera Net

Critics say these incidents, combined with calls for closure and sacrificial rites, amount to an intentional campaign to reshape and seize control of a sacred Muslim site.