A Palestinian teenager fishing off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Friday drowned following firing by the Israel navy, a health official and witnesses said.
"Adolescent Zyad el-Bardawil, 15, died after Israelis pursued his boat at sea," a spokesman for Gaza's health services, Adham Abu Selmiya, told AFP.
According to witnesses, the Israeli navy opened fire on fishing boats off the coast of Rafah when one of the boats overturned and the teenager drowned.
The boy's boat was part of a small flotilla of fishing boats that was pursued by a navy patrol boat, the witnesses said.
Fishing zones are strictly limited off Gaza by Israel which has imposed a blockade of the Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement.
When contacted by AFP, an Israeli military spokeswoman said that "this incident has not been reported by the Israeli side."
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