Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians on Friday in protests along Gaza’s border, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military said it opened fire on a group of Palestinians who breached the fence and approached an army post. No Israeli troops were harmed, the army added. At least 140 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets, the ministry said. The Palestinian deaths bring to around 200 the number of Palestinians killed since the border protests began on March 30, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. In May, about 60 protesters were killed in a single day, making it one of the deadliest since a 2014 war between the two sides. The Israeli military said that the demonstrators, numbering around 15,000, had been “hurling rocks, explosive devices, firebombs and grenades” at Israeli troops and at the fence. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col Jonathan Conricus tweeted that one group had “detonated a bomb on the Israel-Gaza border fence”, allowing around 20 people to climb through the hole. He said around five of the group had then launched an organized attack against a military post inside Israel and all had been killed by the troops. The Palestinian protesters are demanding an end to a stifling Israeli blockade on the narrow coastal strip, which is home to around 2 million Gazans. They also seek the right to return to lands that Palestinians fled or were driven from upon Israel’s founding in 1948. The Israeli military has been criticized by Palestinians and international human rights groups for its lethal response to the protests. One Israeli soldier has been killed by a Palestinian sniper during the weekly protests, and tracts of Israeli land have been scorched by incendiary kites and balloons. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 and has since fought three wars with Israel, most recently in 2014.