HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the Hebron district on Wednesday, security and medical sources said.

The sources said the 15-year-old was attempting to cross Israel's separation wall near the southernmost West Bank area of al-Ramadin when Israeli forces shot him dead.

Israeli troops gave him no warning before shooting him, the sources said.

The youth was identified as Yousef Nayif Yousef Shawamrah Abu Akar from the village of Deir al-Asal al-Fauqa south of Hebron.

Israeli forces have yet to deliver his body.

Witnesses said the victim had been foraging for local plants when he was shot, but the army claimed he and two others had been vandalising the security fence.

"Three suspects sabotaged the security fence in Deir al-Asal Atachta, and soldiers at the scene called them to distance themselves and fired warning shots in the air," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

"After all efforts were exhausted the soldiers fired at the main instigators' lower extremities and a hit was identified."

The victim was evacuated to an Israeli hospital, where he died from his wounds.

But the victim's brother, Abed Shawamreh, 23, denied the army's account and said the teenager had been out looking for gundelia, a thistle-type plant used in cooking.

"Every year, people from the village go out to pick gundelia. Today Yussef went with his friends to pick some in an area close to the wall and the army shot at them. They hit him and arrested two of his friends," he told AFP.