Gaza protests: All the latest updates

Israeli forces shoot dead seven Palestinians and wound hundreds more as protests near Gaza border continue.

or a second week, thousands of Palestinians are protesting along the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip, as part of the Great March of Return movement.

Israeli forces have killed 26 Palestinians during the past week, including 17 on the first Friday of protest, and wounded more than 1,600 others.

Here are all the latest updates on Friday's protests:

Yahya Sinwar: Gaza will 'stand tall' in the face of the occupation

• Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has made a rare public appearance at a protest near the city of Khan Younis.
• Freed in a 2011 prisoner swap with Israel after more than 20 years in jail, Sinwar told the crowd that Gaza would "stand tall" in the face of Israeli occupation.
• "The plot of starvation and siege have failed to incite the Palestinian people against the resistance [Hamas].
• "Gaza will not starve and will not abandon its national objective.
• "Our people came out to tell the world that Gaza is free and that we will stand tall and resist the Israeli occupation."

Local media: Seven killed by Israeli forces

The Palestinian Safa Press Agency is reporting that the death toll has risen to seven, with Sidqi Abu Outewi, a 45-year-old from Nuseirat, and Mohammed Hajj Saleh, a 33-year-old from Rafah, joining the growing list of fatalities.

Fifth Palestinian killed, health ministry says

• The Palestinian ministry of health says the death toll has risen to five, with 20-year-old Ibrahim Al-Ourr killed.

Palestinian Ministry of Health: 780 wounded

• Health officials in Gaza said that at least 780 protesters have been wounded, including seven women and 31 children.

Fourth Palestinian killed, health ministry says

• The Palestinian ministry of health said that a 16-year-old boy has been killed by Israeli forces.
• The teenager, Hussein Madi, was dead on arrival after he was taken to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, the ministry added.

Journalist: 28 wounded protesters in intensive care unit

• Hosam Salem, a photographer at the scene in the southern Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that there are currently 28 protesters in the intensive care unit at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
• Salem witnessed his colleague Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old journalist with a local media outlet, drop to the ground after he was shot by Israeli forces in the stomach.
• "Yaser was filming with his camera next to me when we heard the sound of gunfire," Salem said. "He just fell on the ground and said, 'I've been shot, I've been shot'."
• "He needed eight units of blood," Salem continued. "The hospital moved him from the operations room to the ICU where his situation remains critical."
• Another journalist, Ibrahim Zanoun, was shot in the arm while covering the protests in Jabaliya, nothern Gaza.

Health officials: Two killed, 250 injured

• The Palestinian Ministry of Health says protester Majdi Ramadan Shbat has been killed east of Gaza City by Israeli forces.
• The number of those wounded has risen to at least 250, according to the ministry.
• Shbat's death brings the total number of protesters killed on Friday to three, after Thaer Rab'a, who was shot by Israeli forces during the March 30 demonstrations, succumbed to his wounds earlier in the day.

Protesters 'defiant' amid growing tension

A Palestinian woman and man stand behind burning tyres in Khuza'a near the border in southern Gaza Strip [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]

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