Abbas Backs Call for Palestinians to Return to al-Aqsa

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas backed calls for worshipers 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' Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, remain deeply divided.