Six Palestinians were wounded on Friday when Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators in the Gaza Strip as they neared the border fence, medics in the besieged territory said.
   
Thousands of people joined the demonstration called by Hamas to demand that Israel lift its crippling blockade of the impoverished enclave.
   
The protesters marched from the cities of Rafah and Khan Yunes in southern Gaza towards the Sufa border crossing, waving banners calling for the end of the "Holocaust" they say Israel is committing in Gaza.
   
They also chanted praise for Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of the densely populated sliver of land last June.
   
Gaza emergency services said six people were wounded when Israeli forces fired on the protesters who approached the frontier fence.
   
A military spokesman said Israeli forces would "operate in all strength to prevent anybody from damaging the fence or the crossing or entering" the country.
   
Israel has imposed a crippling embargo on Gaza in what it says is an effort to force Hamas to end militant rocket and mortar fire into the Jewish state.