The European Union has warned of "serious consequences" for Middle East regional security if the Gaza Strip's dire economic and humanitarian situation is not addressed.

A report commissioned by EU consuls-general in east Jerusalem and Ramallah urged Israel to ease access restrictions to the blockaded Palestinian territory, especially in light of an unprecedented crackdown by the new Egyptian regime on Gaza's western border.

Egypt's military said Wednesday it has destroyed 1,370 smuggling tunnels under its border with the Gaza Strip, as Cairo's ties remain sour with the Hamas movement that rules the Palestinian enclave.

Ties took a turn for the worse after the military's July ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, with which Hamas is affiliated.

An unmanned aircraft of the sort Israel uses for surveillance and missile strikes in Gaza crashed in the south of the territory early on Tuesday, sources on both sides said.

"A Sky Rider drone crashed in the southern Gaza Strip due to a technical malfunction," an Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP. "An investigation is under way."

The Gaza Strip's two principal militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have already shown they are able to strike Israeli population centers as far away as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

But their capabilities could have been extended significantly, Israel claims, had it not intercepted a ship carrying weapons it says were on their way from Iran to Gaza.

Israel will on Monday display weaponry from an intercepted ship it says was destined for Gaza in a bid to expose the "true face of Iran" which allegedly dispatched it.

The military says it found 40 long-range M-302 rockets aboard the Panamanian-flagged Klos-C it intercepted in the Red Sea last week, as well as 181 122mm mortar shells and approximately 400,000 7.62-caliber rounds.

The Israeli army was on Sunday unloading a ship which it intercepted in the Red Sea allegedly transporting arms from Iran to Gaza and escorted to the port of Eilat.

An AFP correspondent said dozens of containers from the Panamanian-flagged Klos-C were being unloaded and transferred on trucks to a nearby navy base.

A ship allegedly carrying advanced rockets from Iran to Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli navy arrived Saturday in the Red Sea port of Eilat, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

Israeli naval commandos seized the vessel on Wednesday in the Red Sea between Eritrea and Sudan, with the military saying it was carrying an Iranian shipment of M-302 rockets destined for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Egypt deported Friday dozens of women activists, who had flown in to Cairo but been barred from entering the country in their bid to reach the neighboring Gaza Strip, an airport official said.

About 100 women, most of them from Europe and the United States, had hoped to enter the Palestinian enclave through Egypt's Rafah border crossing to celebrate International Women's Day on Saturday.

Iran's foreign minister on Friday sharply rejected an Israeli allegation that Tehran tried to ship missiles to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, calling it a "lie".

Israel has said it captured a Gaza-bound ship Wednesday carrying dozens of Syrian-made rockets "capable of striking anywhere in Israel".

An Egyptian court ban on Hamas activities could push the increasingly isolated Palestinian Islamist movement into another battle with Israel, analysts say.

The latest move marked a further deterioration in ties between Egypt and Hamas, which has close links to the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and is now the target of a sweeping crackdown by the military-installed government.