Egypt's military says it has seized caches of weapons in a Sinai operation including a mortar apparently belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in neighboring Gaza.

The military has launched a sweeping offensive in the north of the peninsula to quell an Islamist militant insurgency that surged after the army deposed president Mohammed Morsi in July.

A delegation from the European Union is expected in Jerusalem on Tuesday to clarify the EU's position on Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, an Israeli official said.

EU guidelines published in July banned European funding for and financial dealing with settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem starting from January 2014.

Cyprus said Monday it had been informed that missile tests will be carried out by a "friendly" country in the eastern Mediterranean this week, as the U.S. weighs military strikes against Syria.

The tests come after Israel last week launched an Ankor (Sparrow) missile in the Mediterranean, ratcheting up the tension in a region already jittery over the possible fallout from any U.S.-led military intervention against Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in London, having earlier insisted that Israelis and Palestinians were determined to pursue direct peace talks.

Kerry met Abbas at London's Ritz Carlton on Sunday evening, the pair smiling and joking before holding a three-hour private meeting, their first talks since direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians began last month.

Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile defence system near Jerusalem Sunday, an Agence France Presse correspondent said, as the United States lobbied for domestic and international support for military strikes against Syria.

The correspondent said the battery was set up west of the city.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved the allocation of 5,000 work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank, enabling them to work in the Jewish state, an official told Agence France Presse.

"The initial resolution stated that it was within the framework of the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and efforts to improve the Palestinian economy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians are determined to push forward with peace talks.

"Despite tough decisions that have to be made and despite pressure that exists on both sides... both the Palestinians and Israelis have remained steadfast in their commitment to continuing the talks," Kerry said in Paris after a meeting with Arab League officials.

President Michel Suleiman met on Saturday with Lebanon's delegation to the Francophone Games in southern France, saying Lebanese youth resisted Israel and defeated terrorism through the army.

“Lebanese youth have the will and have been capable of making wider achievements than any other country,” Suleiman told the delegation that is participating in the games in the coastal city of Nice.

Israeli police fired stun grenades at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters after Friday prayers in Jerusalem's Old City, arresting 15 of them, police said.

"Several hundred Palestinian youths demonstrated after Friday prayers in the al-Aqsa compound, and threw stones at Israeli security forces," spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed Friday to Europe for talks aimed at shoring up support for U.S. strikes on Syria, and to meet with Arab leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

It is the 14th trip in some seven months for Kerry since taking the job as America's top diplomat, and will take him first to Vilnius, Lithuania for a meeting with EU counterparts before he travels to Paris and London. He is due to return to the United States on Monday.