Fifteen-year-old Mohammed Ayoub ignored his mother's objections and slipped away to join this week's protest along the Gaza-Israel border, just hours after the IDF dropped leaflets in his Gaza village warning residents to stay away.
A few hours later, the teenager was killed by a bullet to the head, Palestinian health officials said.
"He asked his aunt to tell me he would be back in an hour," said his mother, Raeda. Instead, she buried her son late on Friday.
For a month, clashes have erupted at the sites of demonstrations and IDF soldiers have used live fire to keep Palestinian crowds, which include terrorist operatives, from breaching the border fence.
Israel accuses Hamas, the Islamist terrorist entity that rules Gaza, of staging riots and using the crowds as cover to try to carry out terrorist attacks. Hamas denies this.
Israel's use of live fire has drawn international criticism and Ayoub's death received particular attention.
"It is outrageous to shoot at children!" U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov wrote on Twitter. "How does the killing of a child in Gaza today help peace? It doesn't! It fuels anger and breeds more killing. Children must be protected from violence, not exposed to it."
U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt put out his own tweet, saying, "A full investigation by Israel of Mohammed Ayoub's death is underway so that we will be able to understand what happened. As we mourn the tragic loss of a young life, we must all resolve to avoid causing more suffering by responses to his death."
The IDF said it was investigating the incident.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday that the leaders of Hamas are solely responsible for Ayoub's death.
"Those cowardly leaders who hide behind women and children and send them forward as human shields so they can continue to dig tunnels and carry out acts of terror against Israel," Lieberman said.
