An Egyptian policeman was shot dead and two colleagues were wounded in attacks in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, security officials said, a day after a bomb killed 11 policemen.

Assailants in a car gunned down a police sergeant in the North Sinai town of El-Arish, the officials said.

Nine people were killed on Tuesday in a stampede outside a military academy in Egypt by relatives seeking to visit cadets, the army said in a statement.

The military released a statement expressing its condolences over the accident, adding that the relatives had crowded around the gates of the complex in Ismailia, northeast of Cairo, in violation of regulations for visitors.

Egypt on Monday denounced Israeli plans to expropriate West Bank land, saying the move violates international law and is an obstacle to efforts for a lasting Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

On Sunday, Israel said it would expropriate 400 hectares (988 acres) of Palestinian land around Bethlehem, and allowed 45 days for any appeal.

Gaza's Islamist Hamas movement may have suffered heavy military losses during 50 days of conflict with Israel but it emerged with its political standing enhanced, analysts say.

An Egyptian court on Saturday commuted a death sentence against the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader to life in prison, in one of many trials of Islamists since their removal from power.

Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, still faces the gallows, however, after another court in southern Egypt passed a separate death sentence over deadly riots in August 2013, almost a month after the army toppled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Secretary of State John Kerry told his Egyptian counterpart Friday that the United States intends to make good on its promise to deliver 10 Apache helicopters to help Cairo's counterterrorism efforts.

Lorries heaped with goods bound for Gaza shops heaved into the war-torn enclave on Thursday, but there was no sign of the much-needed building materials to start the all-important reconstruction.

An increasing number of trucks, carrying everything from biscuits and soft drinks to nappies, could be seen passing into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, after a Tuesday ceasefire ended 50 days of bloody and destructive fighting.

An Egyptian jihadist group on Thursday released a video in which it claimed responsibility for beheading four men accused of being "Israeli informants" before showing the victims' decapitated bodies.

In the video, militants belonging to Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, considered the deadliest jihadist group in Egypt, say they killed the men in the restive Sinai Peninsula for assisting neighboring Israel.

Egypt has opened an investigation into deposed president Mohamed Morsi for allegedly handing over to Qatar "documents relevant to national security," state news agency MENA reported on Wednesday. 

Morsi is already facing the death penalty in several trials and his supporters have been the target of a bloody crackdown by the authorities that has left more than 1,400 dead since he was turfed out in July 2013. 

A United Nations humanitarian aid convoy crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday for the first time since a blockade was introduced on the territory in 2007.

The World Food Program (WFP) said the convoy, which entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, carried enough food to last 150,000 people for five days.