Israeli forces shot dead seven Palestinians Friday in one of the deadliest days in months of mass protests along the security fence separating Gaza and Israel, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

A spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry said six Palestinian men were killed as thousands of protesters approached the heavily-guarded Israeli border.

Four died along the frontier east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza, one east of Gaza City and one near Rafah in southern Gaza, the spokesman said, adding that all the victims were men aged between 17 and 29.

The ministry added that at least another 140 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets.

At least 204 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since March 30, when Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began holding almost daily protests near the buffer zone.

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 roughly 2 million inhabitants of many basic commodities.