BRUSSELS

The recent upsurge of violence in West Bank underlines the immediate need to reopen the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, an EU official said on Tuesday.

The European Union follows the recent flare of violence in the West Bank “with great concern,” said Peter Stano, the European Commission’s lead spokesperson on foreign policy.

The EU calls on all parties “to exercise maximum restraint to refrain from violence and to avoid all forms of provocations,” he stressed.

The latest events underline “again the need to restore the political horizon and to open the path towards the relaunch of the peace process as soon as possible between the Israelis and Palestinians."

He added that the bloc works with both sides, as well as international partners to support the relaunching of these negotiations.

Tensions have been running high across Palestinian territories since the beginning of April amid repeated Israeli arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured Friday in clashes with Israeli forces in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.

Daily settler incursions into the site to celebrate the week-long Jewish Passover holiday have further inflamed the situation.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.