Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri held talks in recent days, their first in ten years, amid a possible and surprising cooperation between the Yesh Atid and Shas parties on a bill based on a fatwa by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that prohibits Jews from storming or visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The potential cooperation is represented by passing a declaratory statement adopted by the Knesset, which stipulates preventing Jews from storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, according to what Israeli Channel 12 revealed in a report included in its evening bulletin on Tuesday.

This cooperation between Lapid and Deri comes after years of estrangement, in light of the increasing tensions between Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Haredi parties in the coalition, against the backdrop of the Israeli Minister of National Security’s provocative and repeated incursions into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the midst of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip for ten months, and in light of warnings of a regional escalation.

During the talks between Lapid and Deri, it was agreed that the latter would support a bill submitted by Yesh Atid, which would be put to a vote after the Knesset's summer recess at the beginning of the next parliament session, and that the bill would be worded in accordance with a fatwa issued by the former spiritual leader of the Shas movement, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Channel 12 pointed out the ideological opposition of the Haredi parties to the storming of Al-Aqsa; and indicated that Ben Gvir's storming of Al-Aqsa today on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, according to the Hebrew calendar, which is a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of Solomon's Temple or the First Temple, angered the Haredi parties to the point that the head of the "Degel HaTorah" party, Moshe Gafni, threatened to withdraw from the government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered that "what happened this morning on the Temple Mount constitutes an exception to the status quo." He said in a statement that "Israel's policy regarding the Temple Mount has not changed, this is how it was and this is how it will remain," to which Ben-Gvir responded that "the policy of the Minister of National Security is to allow freedom of worship for Jews everywhere, including the 'Temple Mount' (the Temple Mount), and Jews will continue to do so in the future."

Nearly three thousand extremists, led by Ben Gvir, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where they performed Talmudic prayers, sparking Palestinian, Arab and international condemnations. The Islamic Waqf Department confirmed that “2,958 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque today,” while a settlement administration that organizes the incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound said that this number represents a record high, with an increase of 36% compared to last year.

"The United States stands firmly for the preservation of the historic status quo with respect for the holy sites in Jerusalem, and any unilateral action (...) that undermines this status is unacceptable," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday evening.

“This is not only unacceptable, but it affects what we consider to be a vital phase, as we work to achieve a ceasefire agreement,” he added. Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa, describing it as a “useless provocation,” adding, “We oppose any attempt to change the status quo regarding the holy sites.”