Israeli officials Friday denied claims by a former envoy that Israel had killed most of those behind bombings at its embassy and Jewish charity offices in Argentina in the 1990s, media said.

News website Ynet quoted foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor describing as "complete nonsense," the allegation by Itzhak Aviran, Israel's ambassador to Argentina from 1993 to 2000.

Israel and the United States carried out a joint missile test Friday, the defense ministry said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pushed for a Middle East peace deal.

The Israel Missile Defense Organization and U.S. Missile Defense Agency completed a "successful" launch of the Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system over the Mediterranean, an Israeli defense ministry statement said.

Israeli former prime minister Ariel Sharon's health was in "slow, gradual" decline on Friday, according to the hospital where he has been in a comatose state for eight years.

"Tests show a slow, gradual deterioration in the functioning of his vital organs ... His state has not changed. He's still in critical condition, and his life is in danger," Tel Hashomer hospital director Zeev Rotstein was quoted by public radio as saying.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry launched a second day of talks with Israelis and Palestinians Friday, seeking to hammer out a framework to guide negotiations towards a peace deal.

American officials have privately said they believe the direct talks resumed in July after a three-year hiatus have reached a new phase, as an April deadline for an accord looms, but are struggling to overcome fierce opposition from both sides to any compromises.

A Palestinian youth shot by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip has died of his wounds, a Gaza medical official said Friday.

Adnan Abu Khater, aged 16, was shot Thursday near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said.

U.S. officials believe Hizbullah is smuggling advanced guided-missile systems into Lebanon from Syria piece by piece, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some components of a powerful anti-ship missile system have already been moved to Lebanon within the past year, including supersonic Yakhont rockets, according to previously undisclosed intelligence.

Israeli war planes carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip early Friday, the army said, shortly after a rocket from the Palestinian enclave struck the Jewish state.

A statement from the army said that "in response to rocket fire toward Israel," its "aircraft targeted a terror infrastructure site in the central Gaza Strip and three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip."

Israel has killed most of those behind the deadly attacks on its embassy and a Jewish charities building in Argentina in the 1990s, a former Israeli envoy said Thursday.

The July 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Hundreds were hurt in a bombing Argentina says was masterminded by Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the thoughts of the American people were with Israel and its comatose former leader Ariel Sharon, whose health was rapidly deteriorating.

"Our thoughts, my thoughts are with the Sharon family," Kerry said ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A Palestinian youth was shot and wounded Thursday by Israeli soldiers near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, sources on both sides told Agence France Presse.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the emergency services in the Islamist Hamas-run enclave, told AFP soldiers shot a 16-year-old in the leg east of Jabalia.