Nearly 60 Syrian soldiers and jihadists have been killed in three days of fighting in Deir Ezzor, the largest city in eastern Syria, where rebels have made advances, an NGO said Monday.

At least 33 fighters of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front have been killed since Saturday, according to the Syria Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday slammed the EU's stance on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, saying they would hamper peace talks with the Palestinians.

His criticism came after Israel approved the construction of more than 1,000 new settlement units, in a move which infuriated Palestinians ahead of Wednesday's resumption of peace negotiations.

Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party and the opposition have called for rival rallies on Tuesday to mark local women's day, reflecting deepening divisions in the strife-torn North African country.

The country is in the grip of a political crisis sparked by the murder of an opposition politician last month, the second such killing this year.

Four out of five Jordanian prisoners held in Israel have ended a three-month hunger strike against prison conditions, Israeli officials said on Monday.

"Four Jordanian prisoners ended their hunger strike of their own volition and without any conditions," a source in the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) told Agence France Presse.

EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton on Monday attacked a wave of sectarian violence in Iraq which she said is calculated to destabilize the country.

Angered by the "senseless" attacks claimed by an al-Qaida front group that killed 74 people during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the European Union's top diplomat said the violence was "clearly intended to fuel sectarianism and undermine the stability of Iraq.

Egypt's judiciary said Monday it was extending ousted president Mohammed Morsi's detention for a further 15 days pending an investigation into his collaboration with Hamas.

Morsi, overthrown by the military on July 3, was placed in detention on July 26 over his links with the Palestinian Islamist militant group, which rules neighboring Gaza.

The EU on Monday urged Israelis and Palestinians to avoid any actions that could undermine the resumption of peace talks after a three-year negotiating impasse.

The spokesman for European Union foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton warned that fresh Israeli approvals for settlements in the West Bank announced on Sunday threatened to render peace talks with Palestinians "impossible".

The ruling Islamist party Ennahda called for rallies on Tuesday to mark Tunisian women's day, deepening the crisis with the opposition which has also called for anti-government protests.

In a statement published Monday Ennahda urged its supporters to gather from 1500 GMT on Habib Bourguiba avenue, epicentre of the 2011 Arab Spring born in Tunisia.

Protesters have held daily demonstrations against jihadists in the northern Syrian city of Raqa, demanding the release of "hundreds" of missing people including an Italian Jesuit priest, a watchdog said on Monday.

News of the protests comes two weeks after Father Paolo Dall'Oglio went missing when he went to meet commanders of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in late July to ask for the release of activists kidnapped by the group.

Iran's parliament began debating on Monday the 18-member cabinet proposed by President Hassan Rowhani ahead of a vote of confidence later in the week.

Addressing lawmakers at the start of the session, Rowhani said his priority in office was to tackle the country's economic crisis, as well as its disputed nuclear program in a bid to lift the several rounds of Western sanctions that have hit the country's economy hard.