3 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN FRESH GAZA- ISRAEL BORDER PROTEST

Gaza City, April 27: Three Palestinians were shot dead Friday as thousands demonstrated along the border between Gaza and Israel for a fifth consecutive week of rallies dubbed the Great March of Return.

More than 300 other people were hospitalised for gunshot wounds and tear gas inhalation, Gaza's health ministry said.

Forty- four Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli fire since major protests began on March 30, with hundreds more wounded.

No Israelis have been hurt.

Marchers are demanding the right to return to their homes seized by Israel in 1948.

Israel says that allowing the refugees in would mean the end of the Jewish state, and accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of using the protests as a pretext for violence.

The protest movement is officially independent but has the backing of Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008.

On Friday protesters again gathered at five sites near the border fence, though numbers were down on previous weeks.

Dozens of young men burned tyres and threw stones a few hundreds metres from the border, with Israeli soldiers occasionally firing tear gas and live ammunition.

Two men, who were not identified by the Palestinian health ministry, were shot dead east of Gaza City, while a third, 29- year- old Abdul Salam al- Bakr, was killed along the border in southern Gaza.