Vandals believed to be Jewish extremists have uprooted dozens of olive trees and scrawled graffiti near a Palestinian village in the southern West Bank, police and witnesses said on Friday. Palestinian witnesses told AFP that approximately 80 olive trees were uprooted in the village of Al-Tiwana east of Yatta. Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri confirmed that "police received a report about the damaging of some 62 Palestinian-owned olive trees" in the area. She also noted that "slogans such as 'price tag' and 'mutual guarantee' were scrawled nearby."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Friday she is worried about mounting tensions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank after conflicting messages from Israel on settlement activity. "The High Representative is concerned by developments over the past week in East Jerusalem and the West Bank which have increased tensions on the ground and risk undermining current efforts to re-launch peace talks," her office in Brussels said in a statement.

Israel has given the go-ahead to build nearly 300 homes in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah, an official said Thursday, in a move likely to spark tensions as Washington seeks to rekindle peace talks. "The Civil Administration has given the green light for 296 housing units at Beit El, but this is only the first stage of a process before actual construction can begin," said the spokesman for a unit within the defence ministry which administers the West Bank.

Israeli police briefly detained a top Muslim cleric on Wednesday as the Jewish state marked Jerusalem Day, sparking a furious response from Jordan which summoned Israel's ambassador in Amman. In Jerusalem's Old City, police arrested more than a dozen people for what they said was disruption of public order, as Jews passed through Arab-dominated areas to holy sites in annexed east Jerusalem.