Gaza City, August 11 (RHC)-- Israeli soldiers have fatally shot a Palestinian youth along the Gaza Strip fence, the second time they kill Palestinians in the besieged coastal sliver in two days.  The victim, identified as 25-year-old Marwan Khalid Nasser, was killed in the northern city of Beit Hanoun in Gaza along the fence separating the territory from the occupied lands on Sunday.

The Israeli military claimed that it had spotted the Palestinian approaching the fence and alleged that he had opened fire with unspecified weapons at Israeli forces on the other side.  It said Israeli soldiers then shot him dead.

The Israeli army also said that it had shelled a number of observation posts in Gaza controlled by the Hamas resistance movement in response to the alleged attempt by Nasser to cross over the fence.

On Saturday, Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians east of the city of Deir al-Balah along the Gaza fence.  The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement condemned the earlier killings in a statement on Saturday.

It also denounced Israeli actions, such as the blockade of Gaza, offenses at the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem al-Quds and the destruction of Palestinian homes, as “elements for an explosion that will come so long as Israel’s policy continues, and it is responsible for these crimes.”

Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Abdulatif al-Qanua said Tel Aviv had “committed a crime against a group of young men furious because of the organized terror [of Israel] against the Palestinian nation and the siege of Gaza.”

Gaza has been under a crippling land, air, and sea blockade by Israel since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008.  Palestinians in the coastal enclave have been protesting at the fence every Friday since March 30, 2018 to demand the right to return of those driven out of their homeland by Israeli aggression.