Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan NasrallahReuters

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday welcomed what he called the “victory” of the residents of eastern Jerusalem and Palestinian Arabs who came to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it.

"They imposed a victory. What we saw in recent days is victory, this is a new model of resistance," he said in a televised address, according to Yediot Aharonot.

"They succeeded in protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque and causing Israel to remove the security measures," he added.

Earlier this week, the Israeli Security Cabinet decided to remove the metal detectors from the Temple Mount and incorporate new measures using advanced technologies.

Israel placed the advanced metal detectors, known as magnetometers, at the entrance to the Temple Mount in response to the recent terror attack at the compound, in which two Druze police officers were murdered.

The security measures prompted an outcry from the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Jordanian Waqf which administers the site, and the Jordanian government. The Waqf refused to enter the compound in protest of the new measures while Arabs rioted and clashed with security forces in and around the Old City.

Nasrallah also said in his remarks on Wednesday that he would not respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's statements against the organization a day earlier, so as not to embarrass the Lebanese government delegation that is in the U.S.

Trump met with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Tuesday, and called Hezbollah a threat to the entire Middle East, accusing the group and Iran of fueling a humanitarian disaster in Syria.