Israel-Gaza border
Israel-Gaza borderTomer Neuberg/Flash 90

Palestinian Authority officials said that an 18-year-old Gazan was killed and two others injured before dawn on Wednesday by Israeli artillery fire in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the IDF told AFP that the soldiers had spotted three men "close to the security fence and opened fire in their direction," without giving further details.

Several exchanges of fire have taken place in recent weeks between Israel and Gaza, which has been governed for a decade by the Hamas terrorist group.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces struck two Hamas positions in Gaza after soldiers were fired at along the metal and concrete barrier that seals off the enclave from Israel.

In February, Israeli aircraft struck targets Gaza in response to a rocket fired from Gaza into southern Israel, hitting Hamas military facilities and wounding four Gazans, none of them seriously.

Gaza terrorists have continued to fire rockets towards Israel, despite the fact that Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that ended Israel’s counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

Last week, the Israel Air Force (IAF) attacked and destroyed two terrorist infrastructures belonging to Hamas in northern Gaza, in retaliation for a rocket attack on southern Israel.

AFP contributed to this report.