Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israeli settlers must stop entering the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, official Wafa news agency reported.

"This is something that can't be tolerated," Abbas said during a meeting of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Earlier this month, Israel allowed Jewish groups to enter the Temple Mount to celebrate the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem, despite Palestinian protests.

The tension in Jerusalem comes as the United States works to rekindle peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The negotiations stopped in 2010 over a dispute on Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Tony Blair, the special envoy of the Quartet, the Middle East peace mediators, urged Israel to respect worshipers' right to practice their religion and to freely access their religious sites.

"I am concerned over the rising tension in the holy places in Jerusalem and the scenes of violence that we witnessed during Easter," he said in a statement.