A Palestinian teenager has been killed and two others injured after the Israeli military fired artillery shells into the blockaded Gaza Strip, local officials say.

Achraf al-Qodra, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said the artillery shells hit a gathering of Palestinian youths in Nahdha neighborhood to the east of Rafah City in southern Gaza before dawn.

“Youssef Abou Azra, 18, was killed and two other Palestinians were injured by artillery fire by the occupier (Israel),” said the Palestinian official.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military claimed the soldiers had spotted three men “close to the security fence and opened fire in their direction,” without giving further details.

An Israeli artillery fires a shell towards the Gaza Strip on July 24, 2014. (File photo)

From time to time, Israel carries out attacks on the Palestinian coastal sliver, which has been under a crippling siege from 2007.

In the latest such raids, military aircraft launched three airstrikes in the northwestern part of the Gaza Strip on March 18 only hours after the regime’s battle tanks shelled the Palestinian strip.

Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian enclave, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26 of the same year killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.