Orthodox Christians mark 'Holy Fire' Easter ceremony in Jerusalem

Huge crowds of pilgrims on Saturday marked the "Holy Fire" ceremony at Christianity's holiest site in Jerusalem's Old City on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Some 10,000 believers holding candles squeezed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Thousands more crammed the square outside and surrounding streets to receive the flame, representing the resurrection of Christ, which passed from candle to candle and will be taken back to Orthodox churches worldwide.

The ceremony at the church -- built on the site where according to Christian tradition Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected -- is the holiest event for Orthodox Christianity.

A recently renovated ornate shrine within the church surrounds the cave where Jesus is believed to have been interred.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the rest of the Old City lies in east Jerusalem, occupied and later annexed by Israel following the Six-Day War of 1967.

The Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic denominations share custody of the church.

Christians made up more than 18 percent of the population of the Holy Land when Israel was founded in 1948, but now form less than two percent, mostly Orthodox.

As Christianity's most important holiday, hundreds of worshippers each year seek to travel to Jerusalem or elsewhere for the festivities, with Christians in the Palestinian Gaza Strip often receiving permits to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for religious ceremonies.

After initially failing to respond to over 700 permit requests seeking permission to leave Gaza for Easter, the Israeli authorities granted permits to 500 Christian Palestinians to come celebrate in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry announced Monday.

The roughly 1200-strong Christian community in criticized Israel's "arbitrary" change in policy when only 200 members received permits last week.

 The 200 who initially received authorization to leave the strip were given permits to visit Jordan, not Jerusalem, further angering the population seeking to spend the holy day at Jerusalem's holy site. 

However, a number of Christian Palestinians were initially prevented from celebrating the festivities, with Israeli authorities failing to respond to permit requests for Christians who celebrated the Western date for Easter.