Gazan teen dies from tank fire near Israeli border

The teenager was shot in the head on Thursday

epa06832141 Palestinians protesters run for cover during the clahses after Friday protest near the border east Gaza City, 22 June 2018. Protesters call for the right of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East to return to homes they fled in the war surrounding the 1948 creation of Israel.  EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli tank fire on the Gaza border, the territory's health ministry said on Thursay.

Abdel Fattah Abu Azoum, 17, was shot near Rafah in south Gaza.

The Israeli army said the man and another were seeking to cross the security fence adding that a tank fired upon them in response.

The army said firebombs were found on the scene, and Palestinian witnesses said two men were looking to breach the border. The other man escaped with minor injuries, Palestinian medics said. The statement did not name the nature of the firebombs but in recent weeks, Palestinian’s have been using homemade kites with flaming rags tied to them to burn nearby Israeli fields.

Tensions on the border have been heightened in recent months.

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Young protesters are defying Israel's blockade with scraps of paper and plastic

UN chief warns of risk of war in Gaza

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Since March 30, Gazans have been demonstrating along the heavily guarded border in protest at Israel's decade-long blockade of the territory and in support of the Palestinians' right to return to lands they fled or were driven from during the war surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

The demonstrations peaked when at least 62 Palestinians were killed as thousands approached the border fence in protest at Washington's moving of its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem on May 14. Over 120 have been killed by Israeli forces in the protests. No Israelis have been killed.

Israel insists the whole of Jerusalem is its "eternal indivisible capital", but the Palestinians claim the eastern sector, which Israel occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed, as the capital of their future state.