An Egyptian court has jailed a retired general for claiming the nation's spies deliberately fed now-deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi false intelligence because he was a "traitor," state media reported Thursday.

Tharwat Guda, a former officer in general intelligence, was jailed for a year Wednesday in a military trial sparked by a complaint from his former institution that he had disclosed information "damaging to national security."

Egypt began setting up a buffer zone along its border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip on Wednesday to prevent militant infiltration and arms smuggling following a wave of deadly attacks.

The move, which will see about 800 homes demolished, comes in the wake of a suicide bombing in the Sinai Peninsula Friday that killed at least 30 soldiers.

Egypt's ultimatum to thousands of non-governmental organisations to register with the government by November 10 will deal a death blow to the country's civil society, activists say.

Armed with a law from the era of Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic president ousted in 2011, the new authorities in Egypt are aiming to keep tabs on the activities and funding of NGOs by forcing them to register.

Eight suspected jihadists were killed in a shootout in Egypt's Sinai, the army said Monday, as more troops were deployed to the peninsula where a car bomb killed dozens last week.

Seven "terrorists and criminals" were arrested after the shootout, which took place on Sunday in North Sinai, an army statement said, without specifying exactly where the fighting occurred.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday enacted a decree allowing military trials for civilians suspected of attacking state infrastructure, after a string of deadly strikes on soldiers.

The decree came after Sisi promised a tough response to what he called an "existential threat" to Egypt posed by militants, following an attack Friday on an army checkpoint in the Sinai that killed at least 30 soldiers.

Israeli-Palestinian talks on a lasting Gaza truce are to resume after mid-November, instead of Monday as initially planned, the chief Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad told AFP Sunday.

The announcement came after other Palestinian officials said the talks had been postponed due to Egypt's closure of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian court sentenced 23 pro-democracy activists on Sunday to three years in prison each for holding an unlicensed and violent protest, after international calls to free the defendants.

The rights activists include Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif, described by Amnesty International as "prisoners of conscience." Seif has been on hunger strike for about two months, her mother Laila Soueif said.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Saturday that a suicide bombing, by a suspected jihadist, which killed 30 soldiers in the Sinai peninsula was carried out with "external support".

Egypt imposed a state of emergency across parts of Sinai as the military pounded suspected jihadists after Friday's suicide car bombing.

A state of emergency came into force Saturday across much of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing by suspected jihadists.

It was the deadliest attack on the country's security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year, to the fury of his supporters.

A car bomb in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed at least 26 soldiers Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.

Security officials said 28 other soldiers were wounded in the attack in an agricultural region near El-Arish, the main town in north Sinai.