Abbas backs call for Palestinians to return to Al-Aqsa

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas backed calls for worshippers to return to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Thursday after Israeli authorities removed controversial new security measures.
"The prayers will happen, God willing, inside the Al-Aqsa mosque," Abbas told a press conference, moments after Muslim authorities announced an end to a nearly two-week boycott of the site over new Israeli metal detectors, cameras and railings installed after a July 14 attack killed two policemen.
The final railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were removed early on Thursday from the entrance to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, two days after the metal detectors were dismantled.
The compound encompasses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock.
The Palestinian leadership suspended security coordination with Israel over the new measures. Abbas said on Thursday it had not yet taken a decision on whether to renew it.
"For now we will talk only about the afternoon prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque and afterwards have a meeting to decide or study the rest," he said.
The leader of Hamas, the Islamist party that runs the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, hailed the Israeli reversal as a victory.
"We salute the steadfastness of the people of Jerusalem in the face of occupation," Ismail Haniya said in a statement.
"We stress what happened was a bright moment in the pages of victory and the beginning of the defeat of the (Israeli) occupation of Jerusalem and al-Aqsa."
Hamas and Abbas's Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, remain deeply divided. — AFP