AL-KHALIL, West Bank -- A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers near the West Bank town of Al- Khalil early Saturday, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.

Firas al-Bau, 22, was killed after he and a friend approached an Israeli outpost and called out "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), an army statement said.

The soldiers, suspecting the two of trying to carry out an attack, opened fire.

"An army troop in an outpost east of Halhool identified a suspicious figure running towards the outpost screaming "Allah is Great". When the suspect reached the post's fence the force opened fir at the suspect, killing him," an army statement said.

"It is important to note that the post is removed from the civilian population, and there are no roads used by Palestinians in the area," the statement said.

The statement said Bau's friend escaped into Palestinian-controlled territory.

Meanwhile, six Palestinians were wounded, three of them seriously, after an Israeli incursion Saturday into Palestinian-ruled areas of the Gaza Strip sparked clashes with young stone-throwers, a hospital director said.

An 11-year-old boy was seriously wounded when he was hit in the back by a bullet fired from a machinegun mounted on an Israeli tank moving toward a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt.

He is receiving emergency treatment at Rafah Hospital, said its director, doctor Ali Mussa.

Security sources said one tank and a bulldozer, accompanied by ground troops armed with automatic rifles, moved at least 10 meters (yards) into Palestinian self-rule areas of Rafah, firing heavy machine guns.

Later, young Palestinians hurled stones at the troops, who fired back injuring five of them. A 13-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man were being treated for serious injuries in Rafah Hospital, Mussa said.