Israeli troops shoot dead 10 Palestinian protesters, including one journalist, and wound at least 200 along the Israel-Gaza border, Palestinian medical officials say, raising the death toll to 32 in the week-long disturbances.

Israeli troops have shot dead nine Palestinian protesters and wounded at least 200 along the Israel-Gaza border, Palestinian medical officials say, raising the death toll to 31 in the week-long disturbances.

They said the demonstrators, including two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, were killed at protest sites along the frontier during a round of daily demonstrations that began on March 30 and are known as "The Great March of Return".

Gaza health officials said a well-known Palestinian journalist also died from a gunshot wound sustained while covering the demonstrations.

They said Yasser Murtaja was among two people to die overnight after being shot on Friday. Their deaths raised Friday's death toll to nine.

Murtaja was shot in the southern town of Khuzaa, which was engulfed in thick black smoke caused by burning tires set alight by demonstrators.

He was over 100 metres from the border, wearing a flak jacket marked "press" and holding his camera when he was shot.

The Israeli military has said it fired only at "instigators" involved in violence. It had no immediate comment.

The day of violence, which saw bigger Palestinian crowds than in recent days but not as large as when the demonstration began last Friday, calmed down as night descended.

The protesters, including Palestinian refugees and their descendants seeking to regain homes in what is now Israel that were lost during its 1948-49 independence war, have set up tent encampments a few hundred metres inside Gaza.

Large groups of youths ventured much closer to the no-go zone along the border, risking live fire from Israeli troops to roll burning tyres at the barrier and throw stones.

"I have two kids, a boy and a girl, and if I die, God will take care of them."

Refugees comprise most of the two million population of Israeli-blockaded Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist militant movement Hamas.

With black tyre smoke and Israeli tear gas rising into the air, Palestinian youths used T-shirts, cheap medical masks and perfume to try and protect themselves.

Israel also tried to douse burning tyres with fire hoses from its side of the border.

The Israeli military has stationed sharpshooters on its side of the frontier to deter Palestinians from trying to break through the fence into Israeli territory.

Israel said many of those killed were militants.

'Demonstrators posing no immediate threat to life'

David Keyes, an Israeli Government spokesman, accused Hamas of having instigated violent protests along the border.

"This is a travesty for the Palestinian people that the Hamas Government is encouraging its people to attack Israel, it is encouraging its people to commit acts of violence," he said.

Hamas' Gaza leader, Yehya Al-Sinwar, spoke at a protest encampment to praise those who turned out to confront the "enemy who besieges us".

He said the demonstrations would continue, telling the crowds: "We will uproot the borders, we will pluck out their hearts, and we will pray in Jerusalem."

Earlier in the day, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem urged protesters to keep the rallies peaceful.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who holds little sway in Gaza, condemned what he described as Israel's "acts of killing and oppression conducted … against the peaceful uprising".

Seventeen of the now 27 Palestinian dead were killed by Israeli gunfire on the first day of protests a week ago, medics said.

The deaths drew international criticism of Israel's response, which human rights groups said involved live fire against demonstrators posing no immediate threat to life.

"We are saying that Israel has obligations to ensure that excessive force is not employed," UN human rights spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell said in Geneva.

Israel has said it was doing what it must to defend its border and that its troops had been responding with riot dispersal means and fire "in accordance with the rules of engagement".

The Israeli Government has ruled out any right of return for Palestinian refugees, fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority.

"We condemn leaders and protesters who call for violence or who send protesters — including children — to the fence, knowing that they may be injured or killed," said President Donald Trump's Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt.

The protest action is set to wind up on May 15, when Palestinians mark the "Naqba", or "Catastrophe" — when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes during violence that culminated in war in May 1948 between the newly created state of Israel and its Arab neighbours. </s> A Palestinian protester was killed and 49 were wounded by Israeli army fire during demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border, the Gaza Health Ministry has said.

The death brings to 41 the number of protesters killed since weekly border rallies began in late March. More than 1,700 protesters have been wounded by army fire during that period.

The ministry identified the protester killed on Friday as a 40-year-old man who was shot in the chest east of the southern town of Khan Younis.

It said seven of the 49 protesters hit by Israeli fire were in a serious condition and that dozens of others were overcome by tear gas inhalation.

The protest came just three days ahead of what the leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas group has said will be a march by tens of thousands who could burst through the border fence into Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces again open fire with tear gas and live ammunition on Palestinian protesters, following 6 weeks of protests. One person is killed and 146 others wounded, with some protesters throwing stones and burning tyres.