In a Thursday statement, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that 23 children, three women and at least two medics had been among those killed.

Another 17,000 Palestinians were injured over the same period by rubber bullets, heavy ammunition and bullet shrapnel, he added.

According to al-Qidra, injuries included 3,279 children and 1,553 women, some of whom have had limbs amputated as a result of their wounds.

The Israeli army faces mounting international criticism for its continued use of disproportionate force against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators.

Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. 

They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of basic commodities.