Speaker Nabih Berri has lauded the Lebanese army for confronting jihadists on the eastern border with Syria and arresting several terrorist networks.

In remarks to his visitors, Berri described the army's role as “a huge achievement that deserves appreciation and support.”

A Cairo schoolboy died on Sunday after being severely beaten by his teacher who has now been suspended, Egypt's education ministry said as an inquiry was launched.

Corporal punishment is common in Egyptian schools, where official negligence has been blamed for the deaths in late 2014 of two children in accidents because of badly maintained equipment.

Karim al-Banna, who on Monday could hear an appeal court uphold his three-year jail term for "insulting" Islam with his atheism, wishes he could live anywhere but his native Egypt.

"All I want now is to leave Egypt. Life is not possible for atheists here," the 23-year-old engineering student told Agence France-Presse from his home in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Separate bomb blasts on Sunday in Egypt's port city of Alexandria, including one near a branch of a French supermarket chain, killed one person and wounded nine, police said.

Since the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, militants have repeatedly set off bombs in Cairo and Alexandria, but the deadliest attacks have been in the Sinai Peninsula.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri arrived in Cairo for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Grand Imam of al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb.

Hariri met with Sisi at Ittihadiya palace, a statement issued by the ex-PM's press office said.

Despite months of embarrassment for Egypt over a series of alleged leaks of sensitive remarks including about Gulf allies, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears to have avoided a major diplomatic furore.

The tapes, aired by Islamist television channels, purportedly revealed conversations which followed the military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 when Sisi was army chief.

Egypt will reopen its Rafah border crossing with Gaza for two days from Monday, for the fourth time since it was closed after a suicide bombing, security officials said.

The terminal was shut after the bombing in the Sinai Peninsula in October killed 30 soldiers, and has since been reopened three times.

Egypt's new Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar has made major changes to his senior police command, a ministry statement said late Friday, as security forces struggle with ongoing Islamist militant attacks.

Abdel Ghaffar was appointed Thursday after his predecessor, Mohamed Ibrahim, who spearheaded a deadly police crackdown against supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, was removed in a cabinet reshuffle.

Egypt on Saturday carried out the first death sentence handed down over the violence that erupted after the army's 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the interior ministry said.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials, which the United Nations has described as "unprecedented in recent history".

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri is expected to travel to the Egyptian capital Cairo on Saturday, reported the Kuwait daily al-Anbaa on Saturday.

Hariri's press office announced that he is scheduled to meet with with President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.