Nine Palestinians killed by Israeli troops as Gaza bloodshed worsens

More than 20,000 protesters are estimated to have gathered on Israel's border in the latest day of a now week-long demonstration.

Nine Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,000 injured by Israeli troops in another day of bloody clashes on the Gaza border.

Thousands of Palestinians continued protests on Friday as they demand refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to ancestral homes in Israel.

Dubbed "The Great March of Return", the week-long protests have now seen 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire.

The Israeli military estimated 20,000 demonstrators gathered at five locations along the frontier on Friday.

This was larger than in recent days but lower than the first day of protests last week, when 17 were killed in the bloodiest day in Israel-Palestine clashes since the 2014 Gaza war.

Among those killed on Friday were journalist Yasser Murtaga and two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, while Gaza's health ministry reported more than 400 had been taken to hospitals and medical centres for treatment.

Mr Murtaga, who was covering the clashes for local TV company Ain Media, was shot in the southern town of Khuzaa, which was engulfed in smoke as demonstrators burned tires.

In the chaos, young Palestinians jeered and hurled rocks over the border fence, while Israeli troops responded with volleys of tear gas.

At least 48 children have been injured, according to Health Ministry and Red Crescent officials in Gaza.

Protesters also set alight tyres to create a smoke screen from sniper fire, but it didn't work.

Sky News witnessed an unarmed man get shot in the foot around 100 to 150 metres from the frontier.

One protester, called Mahmoud, said: "We're fed up being refugees. Through decades and almost a century now we've been kicked from one country to another.

"We're denied our rights, we can't live a normal life."

Israel believes the protests have been instigated by Hamas, which rules Gaza and whose military wing is proscribed as a terror group by the UK, as a disguise for terror attacks.

Thousands of rocket strikes from Gaza have hit Israel over the past few years.

Israel's military released a video purporting to show a Palestinian man damaging the border fence.

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said: "The rules of engagement for our troops on the ground are very strict and only after other means have been used, the less lethal means have been exhausted, then the soldiers are given guidance and orders to strike those that pose a direct threat.

"There are no random hits and there is no arbitrary targeting of civilians, that is total nonsense."

United Nations human rights spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell urged Israel to exercise restraint amid the continuing protests.

"We are saying that Israel has obligations to ensure that excessive force is not employed," she said.

"And that if there is unjustified and unlawful recourse to firearms, resulting in death, that may amount to a wilful killing."

But the US, Israel's closest ally, has blocked a UN Security Council statement supporting the rights of Palestinians to protest peacefully.

It was the only one of the 15 council nations to disagree with the statement.

(SKY NEWS)