US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday hailed a shift in the Arab League position to accept for the first time the idea of land swaps between the Palestinians and Israelis in any peace deal. Kerry said the Arab League had said it could accept Israel's 1967 borders "with adjustments to reflect mutually agreed upon land swaps recognizing some of the changes that have taken place. That is a very big step forward."

Pope Francis called on Tuesday for Israel and the Palestinians to "resume negotiations" and "take courageous decisions", the Vatican said in a statement, after a meeting between the pontiff and Israeli president Shimon Peres.

US Secretary of State John Kerry hosted talks with top Arab League officials Monday as he pursued painstaking efforts aimed at revitalizing the Middle East peace process. The new top US diplomat has devoted time and energy to trying to find a way out of the impasse and bring all sides back to the negotiating table since taking office on February 1. He has traveled three times to the region, meeting senior Israeli and Palestinian officials as well as Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian, and Qatari leaders, in a bid to revive the peace talks, which last collapsed in late 2010.

By Noah Browning DEIR JAREER, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse about 500 Palestinian villagers marching toward a Jewish settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank on Friday. The procession, the largest of its kind for years, followed charges by Palestinians that the Israeli settlers, whose caravans abut village land, had attacked them twice this week.