GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians who were throwing stones near the border fence in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing one man and wounding seven others, residents and hospital officials said.

A relative of Palestinian Fadi An-Najar mourns at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

An Israeli military spokeswoman said dozens of Palestinians had gathered at the fence and were trying to damage it. Soldiers on the Israeli side of the border fired warning shots in the air after their calls to halt were ignored.

Residents in the enclave, run by Islamist Hamas group, said the protesters were throwing stones near the fence when the Israeli troops shot at them. Hospital officials in Gaza said a 25-year-old man was killed.

The Israeli spokeswoman said the military was looking into reports of a Palestinian fatality.

At least 248 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since a wave of sporadic violence began in 2015 in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Israel says at least 167 of those killed were carrying out stabbings, shootings or car-ramming attacks. Others died during clashes and protests.

Thirty-seven Israelis, two American tourists and a British student have been killed in the violence, which has slowed in recent months but not stopped.

Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state including the enclave and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership have stalled.

An Israeli panel approved plans on Tuesday for the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in two decades, Israeli media reports said, drawing Palestinian condemnation and defying repeated international appeals to avoid such measures.