Thousands of religious Jews flocked to the Old City of Jerusalem’s on Sunday morning to mark the Jewish day of mourning Tisha B’Av, at the same time as the war in Gaza continues for the third day.

Crowds of believers engaged in prayer recitations, rocking back and forth, and ‘wailing’ at the destruction of the Jewish Temples.

The far-right Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir and hundreds of Israelis stormed the “Bab Al-Qattanin” area, one of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“They (Gaza) always threaten to shoot rockets even when we don’t go into the Temple mount, so I think we should not hesitate, I’m not afraid of them,” Ben Gvir said.

Tisha B’Av is considered the ‘saddest’ day in the Jewish calendar, mourning the destruction of both the First and the Second Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE and 70 CE.

On Saturday, Tel Aviv conducted air strikes on targets in Gaza for a second day, as part of its “Breaking Dawn” operation against the Islamic Jihad Movement. According to Palestinian authorities, 33 have been killed, while 253 others have been injured.

In response, Islamic Jihad Movement fired hundreds of rockets at Israel since Friday