This article is distributed by Ma'an News Agency and is republished with permission.

A Palestinian girl was killed and and her brother was injured by Israeli shelling in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, medics told Ma'an.

Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Hospital identified the slain girl as Hiam Abu A'yesh, 17, and reported that her 24-year-old brother Husam was also injured by shrapnel that struck the family's home in the Juhor Ad-Dik neighborhood.

Sources at the hospital in central Gaza added that others were presumed to have been hurt in the attack, while some other news reports placed the figure at 11. Israel's military claimed to be unaware of any injuries on either side as a result of the apparent cross-border operation into the Strip.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the country's military had fired mortar or artillery shells in response to Palestinian gunfire near the Karni crossing at the Israel-Gaza border, although an army spokesperson later denied that tank ammunition was fired.

Other Israeli reports quoted Palestinians saying clashes had been witnessed at Bureij Refugee Camp, while exchanges of gunfire were also reported in the media following an alleged attempted detonation of a roadside bomb near a military jeep traveling inside Gaza. Ma'an could not independently verify the reports, and it was not immediately clear if they were referring to the same incident.