Ramallah, December 15 (RHC)-- A Palestinian man has been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank and at least 85 Palestinians have been injured in clashes during anti-occupation protests along the border between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied territories.

According to al-Aqsa satellite TV channel, the Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces injured 85 Palestinians, including seven medics and three journalists, in Gaza on Friday.

Tensions have been running high near the fence, separating Gaza from the occupied territories, since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests called “The Great March of Return.” Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

Some 240 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

Friday’s protest also called for an end to the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza since 2007, which has been causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Also on Friday, al-Aqsa reported that Israeli troops shot dead Mahmoud Nakhla, 18, during clashes in Jalazone refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Several people were also injured in the clashes that erupted between the Palestinians and the Israeli forces during protests in Ramallah against the Israeli settlements construction and the seizure of their lands.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.   Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

The clashes comes a day after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to authorize new settlement units in the occupied West Bank after two Israeli soldiers were shot dead and two others were injured in the Palestinian city of Ramallah.