Four children and a woman were killed Tuesday when a shell hit their house in a town in North Sinai where Egypt's army is fighting jihadists, security officials said.

They said the woman and the children, including a girl of just eight months, were killed in the town of Sheikh Zuweid. A boy and girl were also wounded.

Egypt on Thursday inaugurates a "new Suez Canal" waterway touted as an achievement rivaling the digging of the original, as it seeks to boost both its economy and international standing.

The ceremony, to be attended by foreign dignitaries including French President Francois Hollande, comes just over two years after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief, overthrew his Islamist predecessor.

The 20-year-old law student says he has had enough of fruitless protests in support of Egypt's deposed Islamist president, two years of a losing struggle with police.

Now he wants to join the extremists of the Islamic State group who are battling the army in the Sinai Peninsula.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought to assure Middle East allies that the Iran nuclear deal would make them safer, as he began a regional tour in the Egyptian capital on Sunday.

Kerry met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to patch up troubled relations between the two countries with a pledge of support.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry launched a strategic dialogue with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Sunday, pledging Washington's support as the two countries patched up a diplomatic rift.

Kerry was to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later before travelling on to Qatar, where he will try to sell a nuclear deal with Iran to skeptical Gulf Arab allies.

An Egyptian court on Sunday postponed for a second time its verdict in the retrial of three Al-Jazeera journalists, rescheduling it for August 29.

The court had already put off its much anticipated verdict last Thursday because the judge was reportedly ill.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Egypt on Saturday to relaunch a strategic partnership with Washington's longtime ally, at the start of a regional mini-tour, a correspondent said.

He is also due in Qatar on Monday to meet his Arab counterparts in the Gulf to try to ease their concerns over the Iran nuclear deal.

Egypt extended Saturday its participation in the Saudi-led Arab coalition carrying out air strikes on Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen for another six months, the presidency said.

"The National Defense Council agreed to prolong the participation of (Egyptian) troops engaged in a combat mission" in the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a statement said.

An Egyptian court postponed its verdict expected on Saturday in the trial of Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri's brother and 66 others accused of forming a "terrorist group" to carry out attacks.

State news agency MENA said the court in Cairo would announce its verdict on August 10 to allow for "further deliberations".

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry departed late Friday to Egypt for cooperation talks and to Qatar, where he hopes to ease Gulf countries' concerns about the Iran nuclear deal.

The trip, which ends August 8, will not include a stop in Israel, one of Washington's closest allies and a fierce critic of the newly-hatched Iran nuclear agreement.