Meanwhile, three families of rightist-religious settlers moved into homes controversially bought from Palestinians at Ras al-Amud, a densely populated quarter on the Mount of Olives.

ECONOMIST: Israel

The dispute has cast a shadow, though perhaps only a small one, over the Easter celebrations at one of Jerusalem's best known landmarks, the golden-domed Mary Magdalene church on the Mount of Olives.

ECONOMIST: The battle of the churches

As dusk fell, the Pope returned to Jerusalem where he visited the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, praying in a basilica built on the spot where the gospels recount Jesus' torment on the night before he was betrayed and arrested.

BBC: Pope in Nazareth