A 60-year-old Palestinian woman died on Friday of wounds she sustained when gunshots were fired from an Israeli military position near her home in the Gaza Strip, medics and relatives said.

Yusra Qdeih was seriously wounded on Thursday night by gunfire that came from an Israeli position, her family said, adding that she had beenin her home in Khuzaa village, near the barrier that separates Gaza from Israel.

She died on Friday after being hit in the chest, according to the head of Gaza's emergency services, Muawiya Hassanin.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she had no information about Israeli gunfire in that area on Thursday night.

She did say gunmen had fired at civilian contractors conducting engineering work near the security barrier earlier on Thursday.

At least 487 people, nearly all Palestinians and the majority of them Gaza militants, have been killed since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks restarted in November at a US-sponsored conference, according to an AFP count.

© 2008 Agence France-Presse