Police said they arrested 13 people on Friday for breaking into the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City and attempting to carry out a sacrifice to mark the Jewish festival of Shavuot.

The suspects broke through security to the holy site and ran into the compound while trying to perform the ritual, police said.

There were no reports of any animal being brought to the Temple Mount, with the suspects instead carrying loaves of bread, according to the Ynet news site.

Bread made from freshly harvested wheat is customarily part of the sacrifice for the Shavuot holiday, an agricultural festival.

While the two temples have not existed and Jews have not performed such sacrifices for nearly 2,000 years, small groups ascend the mount perennially to try to revive the ritual, without success.

The Temple Mount, revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Judaism’s holiest site and the third holiest site in Islam, and has long been a flashpoint for conflict.

Public Jewish prayer — and animal sacrifice — is prohibited there. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a frequent visitor to the site, has pushed to change the ban on prayer, prompting fury in the Muslim world and denials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the status quo has changed.

13 נאמני הר הבית הצליחו לפרוץ לתוך מתחם הר הבית, מתוך מחסום משטרתי. זו לא פעם........

© The Times of Israel