A Palestinian youth was shot and wounded Thursday by Israeli soldiers near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, sources on both sides told Agence France Presse.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the emergency services in the Islamist Hamas-run enclave, told AFP soldiers shot a 16-year-old in the leg east of Jabalia.

An 85-year-old Palestinian died overnight after inhaling tear gas used by the Israeli army to disperse a march near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said Thursday.

Said Nassar died in hospital in Nablus after breathing in the gas fired by Israeli security forces on Wednesday during a march in the village of Kfar Qaddum.

Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners Tuesday as part of U.S.-brokered peace talks ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry's latest visit to the region.

The release prompted elation among Palestinians, who welcomed the prisoners back into the West Bank and Gaza Strip after they had spent two to three decades in Israeli jails.

The families of Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks appealed Monday against the imminent release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace talks, media reported.

The Supreme Court has always rejected such appeals.

Two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were wounded Sunday by Israeli tank fire, medical sources said, less than a week after cross-border violence peaked with deaths on both sides.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the emergency services in the Islamist Hamas-run enclave, told Agence France Presse two men were in "moderate condition" after being hit by tank fire "in an open area" east of Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

The 26 Palestinian prisoners Israel has agreed to free as part of ongoing peace talks will be released on Monday, a source in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Netanyahu had agreed to the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners in line with commitments to the U.S.-backed peace talks, which resumed in July, and groups have been freed on August 13 and October 30.

Russian forensic experts studying the remains of Yasser Arafat on Thursday said the Palestinian leader died a natural death, ruling out radiation poisoning.

"We have completed all the studies," Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), told a news conference.

Israel will announce plans for new settlement construction next week, coinciding with the release of a third batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of peace talks, an official said Thursday.

Palestinians have warned repeatedly that settlement building destroys the fragile U.S.-brokered peace talks that resumed in July after a three-year hiatus.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees on Wednesday condemned the Israeli demolition of Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to "immediately halt" them.

"UNRWA condemns the latest demolitions in the West Bank, which displaced 68 people, the most recent of which occurred on Christmas Eve," spokesman Chris Gunness said.

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian man in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, sources on both side of the border said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the emergency services in the Islamist Hamas-run enclave, told AFP the 22-year-old was hit by a bullet east of Khan Yunis and moderately wounded.