Sudan has no connection with a ship intercepted in the Red Sea allegedly carrying rockets from Iran to Gaza, Khartoum's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"We have nothing to do with this," foreign ministry spokesman Abubakr Al-Siddiq told AFP, adding that the vessel was in international waters.

A ship Israel said was carrying advanced rockets bound for Gaza from Iran will be brought into port Saturday after being intercepted by Israeli naval forces, the military said.

"This ship, which was transporting dozens of M302-type rockets with a range of 150 to 200 kilometers (more than 100 miles) is currently north of Port Sudan and will arrive in Eilat Saturday evening," General Motti Almoz told military radio Thursday.

Egypt on Tuesday deported an American anti-war activist who was trying to travel to the Gaza Strip, airport officials and the activist herself said.

Medea Benjamin, who co-founded the CodePink anti-war group, was detained on arrival in Cairo airport on Monday. She had planned to join a delegation of activists on a visit to the Palestinian coastal enclave this week.

An Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians and wounded two others on Monday, the emergency services in the Hamas-run enclave said.

Emergency services chief Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse that Musaad Alzaneen, a man in his early 20s, was killed in the raid on farmland near the town of Beit Hanoun.

A mentally ill Gazan woman was shot dead by Israeli troops near the border early on Saturday, the Palestinian territory's Hamas-run health ministry said.

The Israeli military confirmed soldiers had opened fire after several people approached the border security fence, hitting one of them.

An Israeli air strike destroyed a rocket launch site in Gaza late Friday, the army said, as an official in the Palestinian territory reported no casualties.

"An Israeli air force aircraft destroyed a rocket launch site in Gaza to eliminate an imminent threat against Israel," an army spokesman said in a statement.

A hand grenade exploded in the courtyard of a Roman Catholic church in Gaza City overnight without causing any casualties or damage, a parish official said Thursday.

"In the middle of the night, unknown assailants threw a hand grenade at the church. It landed in the courtyard and exploded but caused no damage or casualties," the source said, requesting anonymity.

Gaza police have arrested family members over the deaths of two Palestinian teenage girls, one of them the victim of a suspected "honor" killing, Hamas authorities said Monday.

Authorities caught relatives of one of the girls as they were trying to bury her in a cemetery near Jabaliya, north of Gaza City, on Thursday, police spokesman Ayyub Abu Shaar told Agence France Presse.

The Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers have said they plan to let private contractors take over the running of the Palestinian territory's border crossings with Egypt and Israel.

"The government is to give the private sector the opportunity to handle the technical management of crossing points from the Gaza Strip," Hamas deputy prime minister Ziad al-Zaza told Agence France Presse on Saturday and said that a commission of seven businessmen would be dedicated to the project.

Sixteen Palestinians were wounded by Israeli army gunfire Friday in two separate incidents near the border fence in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, said a 12-year-old boy was in serious condition after being shot in the head northeast of Gaza City near Jabalia.