Six Palestinians, including two children, were killed by Israeli fire amid demonstrations along the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in the strip said.
In a statement, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that Iyad Khalil al-Shaer, 18, and Mohamed Nayef al-Houm, 14, Mohamed Shahsa, 24, Mohamed Valid Mustafa Haniyyah, 32, and another unidentified 12-year-old child have been killed by Israeli army gunfire.
According to al-Qidra, another 75 Palestinians were injured -- two of them seriously -- by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.
More than 180 demonstrators have been killed since March 30, when Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began holding almost daily protests near the buffer zone.
Protesters demand the "right of return" to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel's 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave's economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
