Germany has warned Israel to attend a periodic U.N. human rights review on Tuesday or face "severe diplomatic damage", Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.

Israel cut all ties with the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council in March 2012, after it announced it would probe how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of Palestinians.

The Palestinians denied Saturday that a mooted Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners is part of understandings in peace talks under which Israel would be allowed to build more settlements in exchange.

The media said this week that Israeli ministers were to meet Sunday to approve the release of a second batch of Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the renewed peace talks.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has said "civil war" was raging in Lebanon between Hizbullah and Global Jihad members who have attempted to drag Israel into the conflict.

"To those who are not yet aware, there is already a civil war in Lebanon. Global Jihad, which has infiltrated Lebanon and is attacking Hizbullah, is blowing up car bombs in Dahieh and is firing rockets at Dahieh and the Bekaa Valley," Yaalon said Thursday in reference to recent attacks on Hizbullah's strongholds.

Israeli ministers are to meet Sunday to approve the release of a second batch of Palestinian prisoners under the terms of renewed peace talks, media said.

Maariv daily said Thursday that 26 prisoners would be freed, the same number as in the first tranche in August.

Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers sentenced a murderer to death on Thursday, the interior ministry said, just weeks after another criminal was hanged in a move that outraged human rights groups

A court in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip sentenced a man who it did not name to "death by hanging for the murder of Aliyan al-Tilbani" during an armed burglary at a biscuit factory, a statement from public prosecutor Ismail Jaber said.

Suspected Islamists militants killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting Thursday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where troops are battling to contain near daily violence, security officials said.

The attack in the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish came a day after militants killed a soldier in the central Sinai, and two days after roadside bombs killed a security force member and a civilian.

Israel's international affairs minister on Thursday said there were "small differences" with the United States over the Iranian nuclear issue, a week after direct talks between Tehran and world powers.

"We generally see eye to eye with the Americans on the final objective, which is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but there are sometimes small differences over the way to do that," Yuval Steinitz, who is also intelligence minister, told Israeli public radio.

Israel's housing minister on Thursday called for doubling the number of Jewish settler homes in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, even as peace talks continue with the Palestinians.

Uri Ariel, who leads the far-right Jewish Home party and lives in a West Bank settlement himself, told army radio he supported "concrete plans for the construction of 100 (new) homes in Hebron."

Rihanna hit Tel Aviv this week for the latest stop on her Diamonds World Tour. The 25-year-old pop star, who reportedly started the show more than two hours late, took a political tone with her lyrics while in the Israeli city.

According to reports, Rihanna changed a portion of the lyrics of hit song "Pour It Up" from "All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs" to "All I see is Palestine."

Israel's top negotiator warned Wednesday that failure in peace talks could lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state with international backing on terms unfavorable to the Israelis.

"Stalemate can lead to a Palestinian state that would be forced on us -- not as the outcome of negotiations that represent the Israeli interest," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel's negotiators at peace talks, told a meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem.