A wounded demonstrator

    

Protesters have gathered along the Gaza border as the ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations enter a fifth week. Some 35 Palestinians, including two journalists, have been killed and thousands injured since the protests began.

Twenty-five people have been wounded in Friday’s protest, three by IDF fire, according to local reports cited by Haaretz.

The rallies, which kicked off on March 30, are expected to continue until the anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel on May 15. The day, known as Nakba, which literally means “catastrophe,” marks the 1948 exodus of around 700,000 Palestinians, who fled or were expelled from their homes during the Arab-Israeli War.

Last week, some 3,000 protesters took part in demonstrations in which four Palestinians were killed. Of the 150 people who reported injuries, 63 were hit by live ammunition, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

International medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the injuries sustained by those hit by live ammunition have been unusually severe. “Half of the more than 500 patients we have admitted in our clinics have injuries where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone,” said Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, the organization’s head of mission in the Palestinian territories.