The injured included eight who were shot by Israeli soldiers' gunfire, Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, told reporters.

A young man is in critical condition and a Gazan photojournalist was moderately injured, he said.

The Palestinian protests on Friday were part of the anti-Israel rally known as the Great March of Return.

The highest commission of the event called on the Palestinian people to join the anti-Israel weekly protests which started in late March 2018.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Friday afternoon in five different spots close to the border between eastern Gaza and Israel, according to eyewitnesses and local media reports.

They said demonstrators cut the barbed wire of the border fence, while dozens threw stones at the Israeli army forces stationed on the border with eastern Gaza.

The soldiers fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds and prevent them from reaching the fence of the border, they added.

Since the start of the protests, 313 demonstrators have been shot dead and more than 19,000 others injured by live ammunition, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.