The body of 20-year-old Mohammed Mansour Bakr arrived at Kamal Edwan Hospital with bullets in the chest from gunfire by an Israel naval ship enforcing the sea blockade on Gaza, medical sources said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that naval vessels shot at a fishing boat after it approached the limits of waters where Israel permits Palestinian fishermen maritime traffic.  She added that at first the warships fired warning shots at the fishing boat and called on it to return to the three-nautical-miles fishing limit. When the boat failed to return, the soldiers fired directly at the Palestinian boat.

"We fired warning shots to turn them back, and when they did not respond, we fired at the boat," the spokeswoman said. "We are checking the claim that there was a casualty."

Palestinians say the Gaza fishing zone is too narrow to provide for the needs of the impoverished Strip's 1.5 million inhabitants.

Israeli navy vessels enforcing a naval blockade of the Palestinian territory regularly fire at Palestinian fishermen to prevent them from venturing more than a few kilometers from shore. Several fishermen were killed and many others wounded in the past.

Israel says the navy is preventing arms smuggling to Hamas and seaborne Palestinian attacks on Israeli territory.