GAZA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 Palestinians were injured on Friday in clashes between dozens of demonstrators and Israeli soldiers stationed on the border between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.

Dozens of others suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas, Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, told reporters.

Among the injured were eight field paramedics and one local photojournalist, he said.

The clashes on Friday were part of the weekly anti-Israel rally, known as the Great March of Return, which started in late March last year in eastern Gaza.

The High Commission of the March of Return earlier called on residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to join the 64th week of protests against the U.S. economic workshop over the Palestinian issue that was held in Bahrain this week.

Hundreds of Palestinians on Friday afternoon gathered at the security fence between eastern Gaza and Israel, waving Palestinian flags, burning tires and chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.

Israeli media reported that Palestinian activists released more than 40 burning balloons from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, despite an agreement on the cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to releasing balloons into Israel.

"If the occupation (Israel) doesn't respect the calm understandings, we have more rough means to force it to respect the deals," said Fathi Hamad, a Hamas leader who joined the Friday rally in eastern Gaza.

Earlier in the day, Hamas officials said Egypt and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov managed to defuse tension between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip and urged the two sides to be committed to cease-fire understandings.

Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar have brokered a series of understandings between Israel and Hamas to calm down the Gaza Strip. Enditem

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