GAZA, (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian children in the northern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel, Palestinian medical staff said on Friday.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that troops had shot at suspicious figures trying to plant an object close to the border fence and that they reported hitting three people, two of whom were evacuated by Palestinian ambulance workers.

Medical staff at a Gaza hospital said the two, one reported to be aged eight and another about 12, were hit in the chest. They were reported to be scouring the area for scrap metal. “We know that a number of Palestinians crawled towards the border fence. They know that it is a dangerous area but they did not heed repeated calls to stop and they planted a suspicious device close to the fence,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said that a third person who was slightly wounded was taken to an Israeli hospital but that none of those spotted in the area were small children.