13 Palestinians killed as deadly clashes break out on Gaza-Israel border

At least 13 Palestinians were killed and more than a thousand injured in confrontations with Israeli forces during protests at the Gaza border, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Tens of thousands of Gazans marched on Friday, gathering at multiple sites through the territory.

According to Gaza health officials, seven were killed by Israeli soldiers at the border fence and one, a farmer, by Israeli tank fire hours before the protest began.

The farmer was identified as Amr Samour, 27, and a relative said he had been hit directly by a shell while picking parsley. His body was marched through the streets of Khan Younis with hundreds of mourners.

One of the dead was aged 16 and most of the casualties were struck by gunfire according to the Health Ministry, who estimated the number of wounded at around a thousand people as protesters marched toward a fence that separates Gaza from Israel on the first day of demonstrations scheduled to take place over six weeks.

The Israeli military said that its troops had used “riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators” and that some of the demonstrators were “rolling burning tyres and hurling stones” at the border fence and at soldiers.

Islamist Hamas movement leader Yahya Sinwar has been taking part in the tent city movement.

Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces used mostly gunfire against the protesters, in addition, to tear gas and rubber bullets. Throughout Friday, Israeli drones dropped tear gas at several locations along the fence.

The Palestinian protest marked “Land Day”, commemorating the killing of six Arab Israelis during demonstrations over government land confiscations in northern Israel in 1976.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said hundreds were hurt by live fire and rubber-coated steel pellets.

The commander of the Israel military Southern Command said, “The forces were identifying attempts to carry out terror attacks under the camouflage of riots”.

The clashes erupted during the peaceful protests that Hamas rulers promised.

Gazans have been warned to stay away from the area by the Israeli military.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke on Friday, saying that “Gazans were demanding a return to Palestine, all of Palestine. No concessions and no recognition of the Zionist entity (Israel) in an inch of the land”.