Lebanese officials have warned of a huge Syrian refugee influx to Lebanon if the so-called Damascus battle erupts, An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

The ministerial sources told the newspaper that if such an influx takes place, the displaced Syrians will include supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad from different sects.

The leading Sunni Muslim seat of learning, Al-Azhar, on Thursday denounced the "sick imagination" behind cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that were aired on Dutch national television.

A statement by the Cairo-based Al-Azhar also urged Muslims to "ignore this odious terrorist act", a day after some 10 cartoons were screened by anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders during a television slot for political parties.

Egypt and the United States will hold a "strategic dialogue" in July, the presidency announced Thursday, amid a growing rapprochement in ties strained after the army ousted president Mohamed Morsi two years ago.

Following the overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, Washington froze $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Cairo.

Journalists are facing "unprecedented threats" in Egypt with a record number behind bars, mostly for links with ousted president Mohamed Morsi's banned Muslim Brotherhood, a media watchdog said Thursday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 18 journalists, many of whom worked for online media, were locked up in Egypt, the most since it began keeping records in 1990.

The German authorities should carry out an investigation into the two-day detention of Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour, a global rights watchdog said Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch called on German lawmakers to put pressure on their government to get answers.

Egyptian-born Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour on Tuesday blamed his controversial two-day detention in Germany at Cairo's request on pressure that the "tyrannical regime" had placed on Berlin.

German authorities on Monday released Mansour, 52, having detained the prominent Arab TV journalist on Saturday at a Berlin airport in a move that baffled and angered rights and media groups.

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip Tuesday, a Palestinian official said, allowing the delivery of cement supplies into the badly destroyed territory.

The move, which also allowed Palestinians to leave and enter Gaza, came almost a year after the outbreak of a bloody and destructive 50-day war between Israel and militant organization Hamas, with tens of thousands of homes still in ruins.

Egypt has taken delivery of two more U.S. fast missile boats to boost its ability in ensuring "regional security and countering terrorism," the American embassy in Cairo said on Monday.

Ties with the United States plummeted after Egypt's army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, with Washington freezing its annual $1.3 billion in military aid.

German authorities Monday released Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour, two days after detaining him at the request of his native Egypt in a move that sparked outrage from rights groups.

"I'm free, I'm free, I'm free," Mansour exclaimed outside the Berlin prison, greeted by dozens of cheering supporters. "Thanks to people around the world who supported me in the last days!"

Egypt on Sunday appointed a new ambassador to Israel to fill a post that had been vacant since ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi recalled the previous envoy in 2012.

State news agency MENA said that Hazem Khairat, a former ambassador to Chile, was appointed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. It did not say when he will take up his post.