A 29-year-old Palestinian man was killed when a tunnel running underneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed, Palestinian medics said on Tuesday.

The man was identified as Ahmed Arbea, from the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Eyewitnesses said he was involved in smuggling through some of the many tunnels that connect the coastal territory to Egypt.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel held talks on Monday with President Michel Suleiman on the former’s recent trip to Egypt.

Gemayel informed him of his talks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amro, Coptic Pope Shenouda III, and al-Azhar Shiekh Ahmed al-Tayyib.

An Egyptian court sentenced a man to three years in jail with hard labor on Saturday for insulting Islam in postings on Facebook, the official MENA news agency reported.

The Cairo court found that Ayman Yusef Mansour "intentionally insulted the dignity of the Islamic religion and attacked it with insults and ridicule on Facebook," the agency reported.

Egypt and Israel are adding the "final touches" to a deal to swap an Israel-American detained in Cairo for a group of Egyptian prisoners and children, the official MENA news agency said on Saturday.

"MENA has learned that the final touches are currently being made for a deal to swap Israeli spy Ilan Grapel, accused of spying on Egypt for Israel, for about 16 Egyptian prisoners and three detained children," MENA reported.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel rejected on Thursday that the Christians in the East would be the victims of the revolutions taking place in the Arab world.

He said during a press a conference: “It is time that we protect the Christians through the establishment of a new bill that protects their existence in order that they no longer remain victims.”

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was freed on Tuesday after five years in detention by Palestinian militants, said he hoped the prisoner swap in which he was liberated would lead to peace between both sides.

"I hope this deal helps achieve peace between both sides, Israel and the Palestinians," he told Egyptian television in his first interview since his release.

Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Shalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.

Freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an ashen-faced Shalit struggled to breathe in an interview with Egyptian TV minutes after his release, saying that he had feared he would remain in captivity for "many more years." He said he was "very excited" to be headed home and that he missed his family and friends.

A deal to release a U.S.-Israeli joint national held in a Cairo prison in exchange for 81 Egyptians held in Israel is imminent, unnamed Israeli officials told public radio on Monday.

Ilan Grapel, who has been in custody since June 12, is accused of being an agent of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt during the uprising which ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.

Potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei called on Sunday for a "clear roadmap" to civilian rule in Egypt, accusing all sides of having fallen short so far in the post-Hosni Mubarak era.

"What I ask of (the ruling military) Council is that it announce a clear roadmap, to have a clear vision for citizens and for investors," the former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief told a news conference in Cairo.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel said on Saturday that the clashes that erupted at Cairo between Egyptian troops and the Copts ascend fears over the Christians’ conditions in the Arab World.

Gemayel discussed the latest developments with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi in Egypt, according to a statement issued by the Phalange Party press office.