Egypt announced Tuesday that it would host a donors' conference on financing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the devastating war with Israel, to be held on October 12.

The conference will be held in Cairo, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said after a meeting with his Norwegian counterpart, Boerge Brende.

The head of Egypt's Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, said Monday that jihadists of the Islamic State were "criminals" serving a "Zionist" plot to "destroy the Arab world."

"These criminals have been able to transmit to the world a tarnished and alarming image of Muslims," Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said.

Egypt has arrested seven men accused of debauchery for taking part in a "gay marriage" video that spread on social media networks, state news agency MENA reported.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has threatened to break off a unity agreement with Hamas if the Islamist movement does not allow the government to operate properly in the Gaza Strip.

And prime minister Rami Hamdallah told AFP a dispute with Hamas over the payment of salaries to thousands of its employees had become the main issue from preventing his government of national unity from operating inside Gaza.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Egyptians Saturday to be patient in the face of power cuts, two days after a major disruption in Cairo, saying massive investment is needed to fix the problem.

Throughout the summer, Egypt has suffered power blackouts caused by rising demand for fans and air conditioning in the sweltering heat and by a shortage of fuel to run generating plants.

Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Morsi will be tried on charges of giving Qatar documents relating to national security, the state prosecutor said on Saturday.

The Islamist former head of state already faces the death penalty in several trials, and his supporters have been the target of a deadly crackdown by the authorities since his ouster in July 2013.

Egypt's top religious body demanded Wednesday that a new belly-dancing TV show be suspended for "corrupting morals" and serving "extremists" who could use it as a pretext to depict Egyptian society as anti-Islamic.

The call by Dar al-Ifta, the top body that advises Muslims on religious and life issues, follows others criticizing the show called "Dancer." But the debate over it isn't all about it being too racy for television — it's part of a concerted effort by Egypt's government to show its both challenging Islamists as a political forces while still respecting the country's more-conservative values.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met for over two hours Wednesday with Palestinian negotiators for "constructive" talks on future relations with Israel, a U.S. official said.

The talks come just days after Israel announced its biggest grab of Palestinian land since the 1980s, and as a new showdown looms at the United Nations with the increasingly frustrated Palestinians planning to push a resolution setting a three-year deadline to end the Israeli occupation.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday called for fortifying the “Lebanese domestic front,” warning that some parties might exploit religion to create a fertile environment for “the growth and proliferation of extremist ideologies.”

Sisi voiced his remarks during a meeting in Cairo with Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat, who was accompanied by a delegation from his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday blamed the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process for fueling regional militancy, as Washington tries to shore up support to combat Islamic State jihadists.

Sisi, a former army chief who overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last year, is battling jihadist militants in the Sinai Peninsula who have killed scores of policemen and soldiers.