Noam Bettan Faces Boos in Vienna as Ben-Gvir Storms Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant Noam Bettan faced boos as he took the stage in Vienna, Austria, while viewers heard distant chants of "Stop, stop the genocide" and "Free, free Palestine" during the semi-final.

TRT World said national broadcasters from five countries—including Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland—boycotted the event because Israel is taking part, and it described the contest as plunging into crisis over Gaza genocide.

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TRT World also said Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins, while Anadolu Ajansı later described Ben-Gvir’s incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as intensifying Israeli violations in occupied East Jerusalem.

In a separate Gaza-focused report, جريدة الرياض said the Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded 856 deaths and 2,463 injuries of varying degrees since the ceasefire declaration in the Gaza Strip on October 11, 2025, and it added that cumulative statistics since October 7, 2023 have risen to 72,742 martyrs and 172,565 wounded.

Anadolu Ajansı reported that Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the esplanade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday under heavy police protection, and it said the Department of Islamic Waqfs in Jerusalem stated he entered the mosque precinct in the afternoon escorted by Israeli police forces.

Anadolu Ajansı also said Ben-Gvir’s incursions are typically carried out without prior public announcement and that since taking office in early 2023 he has stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque about 14 times.

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جريدة القدس described Yitzhak Wasserlauf storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque under tight protection from occupation forces ahead of the commemoration of the occupation of the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem, and it said he called on the Israeli public to intensify incursions.

In response, Hamas warned that such measures will not succeed in changing the Islamic and historical identity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned the storming as a blatant violation of international law.

جريدة الرياض said the General Assembly of the Israeli Knesset approved a bill in the second and third readings to establish a special judicial body to try Palestinian detainees accused of leading their participation in the October 7, 2023 attack, including the possibility of imposing death sentences.

“Ben-Gvir storms the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem as Israeli violations intensify”

Anadolu Ajansı

The same report said the law received the support of 93 Knesset members with no opposition and that Justice Minister Yariv Levin said the law guarantees trying saboteurs and their partners and imposing penalties on them, including death sentences.

It also said the law requires that no one suspected of involvement in the October 7 operation, or charged with it, or convicted of it, be released under any prisoner exchange deals, and it described the court as effectively functioning as a military court to review files of more than 250 detainees whom Israel says are members of Hamas’s elite.

Across the same period, TRT World framed the Eurovision boycott as protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while Anadolu Ajansı described Palestinian claims that incursions into Al-Aqsa are part of efforts to Judaize occupied East Jerusalem and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.