![An injured press member is being carried away after Israeli forces attacked Palestinians during the Great March of Return demonstrations in Gaza on 18 January 2019 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/20190118_2_34491895_40872589.jpg?w=365&h=243&ssl=1 "GAZA CITY, GAZA - JANUARY 18: An injured press member is being carried away after Israeli forces' intervention during a protest within \"Great March of Return\" demonstrations in Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on January 18, 2019. ( Ali Jadallah - Anadolu Agency )")
In a statement, the ministry said the protesters — whose names were not given — had been injured by live ammunition, Anadolu Agency reports.
According to the ministry, two journalists and three paramedics were also injured when they were struck by teargas shells.
Since Palestinians began holding almost-daily rallies along the buffer zone in March of last year, more than 250 have been killed — and thousands more injured — by Israeli army gunfire.
Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes 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 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.