GAZA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian demonstrators were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers stationed on the border between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, medics said.
They were injured during participation in the weekly anti-Israel rallies and protests, better known as "the Great March of Return," which have been going on since March 30 last year.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said in a press statement that 17 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire.
"Israeli soldiers targeted three field paramedics and one local photo journalist," al-Qedra said, adding that the soldiers fired tear gas and live gunshots at the demonstrators who were joining peaceful rallies.
The clashes broke out after hundreds of Palestinians reached the border area between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel. They waved Palestinian flags, chanted slogans against Israel, burned tires and threw stones at the soldiers stationed on the border.
Paramedics in the area said that dozens were injured and most of them were treated in the field.
Gaza Health Ministry said that since the outbreak of the marches, the Israeli army shot and killed 260 Palestinians, including 48 children and six women, and wounded more than 26,000 others. Most of them were injured by live gunshots and tear gas.
The protests on Friday were organized one day after a United Nations investigation report, accusing Israel of committing "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during the weekly marches.
The Israeli media reported that 9,000 Palestinian demonstrators carried out riots close to the fence of the border with Israel, throwing stones and homemade sound bombs and burning tires.
Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that the Palestinians' insistence to carry on with the protests and rallies "shows that (Palestinian) people won't give up their demand of ending the siege."
Egypt and the UN mediated a clam understanding in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel.
Khalil al-Hayyah, senior Hamas leader, told reporters in eastern Gaza during the rallies that "Egyptian officials will start a new round of mediation to oblige" Israel to be committed to the Egyptian-brokered calm understanding reached between Israel and Hamas last November.
