Syria's army sent shells smashing into rebel zones on the outskirts of Damascus Sunday while a Palestinian camp south of the capital was rocked by fresh fighting, a watchdog said.

"Regime troops shelled Daraya, Beit Sahm, Mleha and Moadamiyat al-Sham," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, referring to rebel-held towns dotted around the edges of Damascus.

The European Union is drawing up a detailed new plan to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and expects to present it after this month's Israeli general election, Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday.

Citing diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, Israel's top-selling daily said the plan was intended to "bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital."

An attack by militants on an Iraqi army checkpoint north of Baghdad on Sunday left three soldiers dead, security and medical officials said.

Insurgents threw hand grenades at the checkpoint, which lies east of Samarra, 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Baghdad, before opening fire with machineguns, an army lieutenant colonel and a medic at the city's hospital said.

Israeli police backed by bulldozers early Sunday evicted Palestinian protesters from a hilltop camp they set up in a West Bank area slated for Jewish settlement, witnesses said.

About 200 Palestinian activists set up the camp, named Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun in Arabic), on Friday in the controversial E1 area between Israeli annexed east Jerusalem and the settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

Italy's consul to Benghazi in eastern Libya escaped unscathed after an attack on his bullet-proof car in the city on Saturday, Italian news agency ANSA reported, quoting local security sources.

The car in which the consul, Guido De Sanctis, was travelling was shot at when it stopped at a crossroads, but no one was injured, the report said.

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak was on Saturday questioned over gifts worth millions of Egyptian pounds allegedly received from the country's flagship state newspaper, a judicial source said.

Mubarak, who is already serving a life sentence for his involvement in the death of protesters during the 2011 uprising that toppled him, was ordered detained for 15 days pending the investigation, the source told AFP.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian on Saturday evening as he tried to sneak from the occupied West Bank into the Jewish State for work, Palestinian officials told AFP.

A medical official said that that he was contacted by Israeli authorities and asked to arrange for the collection of the man's body from Soroka hospital, in the southern Israel, after he was shot trying to cross Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Clashes broke out again on Saturday between residents and police in Ben Guerdane near Tunisia's border with Libya after nearly a week of demonstrations over poor living conditions.

Ben Guerdane, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, has witnessed sporadic unrest since Sunday, fuelled by Tripoli's decision to close the Ras Jdir border crossing in early September for security reasons.

The prime ministers of Libya, Algeria and Tunisia decided on Saturday to reinforce border security and join forces tackling regional challenges including terrorism, arms trafficking and organized crime.

The decision was taken by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali during a meeting in the southern Libyan oasis of Ghadames.

Amnesty International expressed concern on Saturday over Tunisia's draft constitution, saying the text contains ambiguous provisions that fail to uphold international human rights standards.

The rights watchdog made the comments on the eve of a meeting of the National Constituent Assembly and ahead of the second anniversary on Monday of the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.