A second Palestinian was wounded by the tank fire near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, a ministry spokesman said.
The ministry identified the dead man as Omar Samour, 27.
Witnesses said he was working his land near the border when the shells
hit.
An Israeli army spokesman said: "Two suspects approached the
security fence along the southern Gaza Strip and began operating
suspiciously.
"In response an (Israeli) tank fired towards them," he said, adding that the army was aware of reports of a death.
The
shelling came just hours before the opening of large protest camps near
the border, which have prompted the Israeli army to deploy
reinforcements, including more than 100 special forces snipers, for fear
of mass attempts to break through the security fence.
The protest camps are expected to remain in place for more than six weeks in the runup to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.
US President Donald Trump's recognition of the disputed
city as Israel's capital in December has infuriated Palestinians, who
claim its annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Hamas
has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and Israeli chief of staff
Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot has warned the Gaza protests pose the
most serious risk of renewed conflict since he took up his post in 2015.
- Rare family protest -
Protests
along the border are common, often culminating in young Palestinian men
throwing stones at Israeli soldiers who respond with tear gas, and
rubber and live bullets.
The March of Return protest is different
because it involves hundreds of Palestinians, including whole families
with women and children, camping along the border for weeks.
Five
main camp sites have been set up spanning the length of the heavily
fortified frontier, from near the Erez border crossing in the north to
Rafah, where it meets the Egyptian border in the south.
AFP / SAID KHATIB A Gazan protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a clash at the border fence near Khan Yunis on March 23, 2018 |
A young couple were married near one of the camps on Thursday evening.
The launch of the protests comes as Palestinians mark Land
Day, commemorating the killing of six unarmed Arab protesters in Israel
in 1976.
It is expected to begin on Friday morning but swell after the main weekly Muslim prayers at midday.
Organisers
say the camps will remain in place until May 15 when Palestinians
commemorate the Nakba, or "catastrophe", when more than 700,000
Palestinians fled their land or were expelled during the war that led to
the creation of Israel in 1948.
According to the United Nations,
some 1.3 million of Gaza's 2 million residents are refugees or their
descendants and the protest is calling for them to be allowed to return
to land that is now Israel.
Washington's plans to launch its new
embassy around the same time, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of
the foundation of the Israeli state, have further stoked Palestinian
anger.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on
Thursday labelled the protest an "organised planned provocation" and
reiterated "Israel's right to defend its sovereignty and protect its
citizens."
AFP
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