Israel has decided to remove metal detectors it had placed at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem and replace them with more advanced surveillance cameras.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted to remove the metal detector gates after a meeting lasting several hours convening for a second time on Monday.
Sheikh Najeh Bakirat, director of al-Aqsa Mosque, said on Tuesday that the move does not fulfil the demands of the Muslim worshippers as the security cameras remain.
Sheikh Raed Saleh, an al-Aqsa official, said "the picture until this moment is not clear, they are doing it in the middle of night, in the cover of darkness, like bats. God knows what we are going to wake up the next morning."
Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras after gunmen shot dead two Israeli guards near the al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third holiest site, on July 14.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority said the Israeli government bears full responsibility for attacking al-Aqsa and changing the religious landmarks of Jerusalem.
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"We affirm the historical and religious right to the al-Aqsa Mosque and warn that the Israeli occupation attempts to evade the benefits of peace," Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said.
"We condemn all Israeli measures that deprive the Palestinian people of their right to perform acts of worship and reject all obstacles that prevent worship, which is the right of all international conventions. We demand a return to the status quo before July 14."
Tensions have escalated since Israel imposed additional security measures at the Muslim-administered al-Aqsa mosque compound seen by Palestinians as an unacceptable infringement of one of their most sacred sites.
Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the site. They have refused to enter the compound in protest and have prayed in the streets outside instead.
Khaled el-Gindy, a fellow at Brookings Institution, said that "those who say this is only about security issues, reducing it to a relatively minor technical issue, really miss the narrative here".
"... giving in to metal detectors would in a way be seen as conceding to Israel's assertion of its sovereignty over the holy site and by extension to whole of Jerusalem," he said from San Diego in California.
"It is an extremely politically loaded as well as practical matter for the Palestinians."
