A Palestinian teenage girl was killed by a shell that exploded in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday and which hospital workers and Hamas officials said was fired by an Israeli tank.

Israeli military officials said an initial investigation showed the girl was probably killed by a misfiring mortar round fired by Palestinian militants during clashes with soldiers near a border crossing in the area.

The Palestinian hospital workers said three other people were wounded when the shell struck near a house in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing the girl.

The Israeli-Gaza border has remained relatively calm since Israel ended a three-week incursion into the coastal territory in January.