ISRAEL’S warplanes launched a strike on Gaza overnight today, leading to the heaviest cross-border clashes with Hamas since the devastating May offensive.

Today, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank after being shot in the head.

The Israeli military said that soldiers were carrying out an arrest raid in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus when they came under attack from nearby rooftops.

Officials said that stones were thrown at the troops and that soldiers opened fire at the protesters. At least 41 Palestinians were injured, including 10 children.   

It is unclear whether the boy, who has been identified as Imad Hashash, was the intended target of the gunfire.

Palestinian Red Crescent emergency department leader Ahmad Jibril said that the Israeli troops fired on the boy as they stormed the area.

Israeli forces have not commented on the teenager’s death directly.

Over the course of a week last month, three Palestinian children were killed in similar circumstances, leading to Save the Children strongly criticising Israeli security forces.

In Gaza, the Israeli military said that a series of airstrikes overnight hit a Hamas weapons manufacturing site, a tunnel and an underground rocket launch site.

Israeli authorities did not provide evidence for this claim, as in previous instances. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hamas responded to the airstrike with gunfire across the border.

The attack followed a report from Human Rights Watch which revealed that Israel’s previous airstrikes which destroyed four high-rise buildings in May had violated international law and could amount to war crimes.

Although Israel claims to target Hamas’s buildings, residential and business sites have often been destroyed and civilian deaths, including children, have been reported.

The clashes came as ceasefire talks, brokered by Egypt, continued to deteriorate with Israel holding up deliveries of much-needed reconstruction materials.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

Under the blockade, the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza is restricted.

On Monday, Egypt announced that it was closing its border crossing with Gaza, which was the main exit point for Gazans, due to the difficulties in the ceasefire talks.