At least 15 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli security forces confronting one of the largest Palestinian demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in recent years, Gaza medical officials said.
More than 1,400 were injured, including 758 by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation.
Around 30,000 Palestinians rallied throughout the Gaza Strip on Friday during the "March of Return," a series of mass protests along the Israel-Gaza border.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces used mostly gunfire against the protesters, in addition to tear gas and rubber bullets. Two people were killed by tank fire, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Witnesses said the military had deployed a drone over at least one location to drop tear gas.
Gaza health officials said one of the 15 dead was aged 16 and at least 758 people were wounded by live gunfire, while others were struck by rubber bullets or treated for tear gas inhalation.
Friday's demonstration commemorates Land Day, which marks the day - March 30, 1976 - when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government's decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian land. But its main focus was a demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Credit: Haaretz
Some 70 percent of Gaza's two million population are descendants of Palestinians who were driven from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nakba.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pressing for a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel, gathered at five locations along the fenced 65-km (40-mile) frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, local officials said.
The Israeli military declared the area along the border a closed military zone, responding with live ammunition and other riot control methods in hopes of dispersing the protests.
According to Israeli media, Israel's army deployed more than 100 snipers on the other side of the border with permission to fire.
While the Israeli military is referring to protests as "violent riots" to justify their crackdown, Palestinian leaders say the protests have been a peaceful demonstration cracked down on by Israeli soldiers.
