An explosion hit an Egyptian pipeline feeding gas to Israel and Jordan on Sunday in the 10th such attack this year, Egyptian security services said.

The blast struck south of the town of el-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula and targeted a segment of pipeline which was gas-free as it was under repair.

Israel was on Sunday preparing to release 550 Palestinian prisoners who will be freed after nightfall to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

The release operation was expected to take place late in the evening, when the prisoners would be bussed to drop-off points near the West Bank city of Ramallah and along the Gaza border.

Israel and the United States are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and do not rule out any option to that end, Israel's defense minister said on Sunday.

"Our two countries clearly believe that a nuclear Iran is neither conceivable nor acceptable and we are determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told public radio, two days after meeting U.S. President Barack Obama.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Saturday on the importance of confiscating the “illegal arms,” noting that the Syrian people are getting closer to their “freedom.”

“Weapons should be only with the security forces and the army,” Hariri said in English, answering a question from a Twitter user.

Tehran has arrested an alleged U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy of Iranian origin before he could complete his mission of infiltrating the intelligence ministry, media quoted the ministry as saying on Saturday.

"Based on the scenario, he was supposed to infiltrate the intelligence ministry ... and feed it deceptive information on a large scale and spy on it," said a statement reported by the ISNA news agency.

The Foreign Ministry has filed a complaint to the United Nations on Saturday over the Israeli spy device that was discovered in southern Lebanon a few weeks ago, reported the National News Agency.

The device was discovered in the outskirts of the southern towns of Deir Kifa and Srifa.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip overnight after firing in the direction of an explosion near the border, the army and medics said on Saturday.

Majed al-Nabahin, 35, was killed near the al-Bureij refugee camp, hospital sources said.

Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem condemned the attack against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon on December 9, slamming the March 14 camp and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe’s accusations that the party was behind the assault.

He said: “We have decided to file a lawsuit against those who made such accusations against us.”

Israeli commentators said on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to crack down on a growing tide of settler violence appeared to be too little too late.

Police and army officers told the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper there was "only a small chance the latest steps will fundamentally change the state of law enforcement in the territories".

Vandals tried to set light to a mosque in a West Bank village overnight, the local mayor told Agence France Presse on Thursday in what was the latest "price tag" vengeance attack.

"Carpets and chairs in the women's section were partly burnt and on the wall was Hebrew graffiti saying 'The war has started'," said Abdelkader Abdeljalil, mayor of Burqa village, which lies several kilometers (miles) east of Ramallah.