Israel on Sunday froze the shipment of building materials into Gaza after discovering what is described as a sophisticated "terror tunnel" into the Jewish state from the Palestinian territory, an Israeli defense official said.

"Due to security reasons, (the army) decided to stop for now the transfer of building materials into Gaza," Guy Inbar told Agence France Presse.

Israel has arrested three Palestinian suspects over the murder of a Jewish settler in the West Bank, its domestic security service said Sunday.

"The Shin Bet, with the assistance of the army and the police, have arrested a number of those involved in the murder of Sarya Ofer," the Shin Bet agency said in a statement.

A top Palestinian negotiator on Friday slammed what he said was Israel's unwillingness to coordinate on security, after an Israeli settler was killed in the occupied West Bank.

Friday's incident, in which suspected Palestinian militants bludgeoned to death a settler at his home, was the third killing of Israelis in the Palestinian territory in as many weeks.

Lebanese-U.S. director Ziad Doueiri said Friday he was willing to face jail to film his award-winning movie "The Attack" in Israel, flouting Lebanon's laws against entering the neighboring Jewish state.

Describing the production there as a "crazy trip", he told an audience at the Frankfurt Book Fair that it still bothered him that the movie, released this year, had been banned in the Arab world.

Suspected Palestinian militants bludgeoned to death a settler Friday in the third killing of Israelis in the West Bank within as many weeks, police said, prompting calls to suspend peace talks.

The wife of the slain man, a retired Israeli army colonel, was injured in the nighttime attack on their home at the settlement of Brosh, in the northern Jordan Valley.

Israeli warplanes this week practiced long-range missions including mid-air refueling in what local media said was a signal to arch foe Iran.

The Israeli air force on Thursday posted pictures and video of the exercise on its website, without saying where or when it took place.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday "a bad deal is worse than no deal" with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, ahead of crunch talks between Tehran and world powers.

In excerpts of an interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published in advance, he called for sanctions on the Tehran regime to be stepped up rather than eased.

After months of foot-dragging,the United States Wednesday suspended deliveries of major military hardware and cash assistance to Egypt to signal deep concern over the mounting bloodshed and the lack of a democratic transition.

Washington said it had stopped shipments of some large-scale military systems as well as halting $260 million in cash aid to Egyptian military leaders, who are currently running the country after ousting its first democratically elected president.

The Israeli army launched on Wednesday more than 100 heavy artillery shells during military exercises in the occupied Shebaa Farms and the eastern outskirts of the Golan Heights.

"Live ammunition were used during the drill and explosions were heard in neighboring border towns,” the state-run National News Agency, noting that the exercises were "intense."

An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded by cross-border fire on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights facing Syria on Wednesday, an army spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

And she said a comrade suffered shock from the explosion near them of two mortar shells, "apparently stray fire," from fighting in Syria.