GAZA, April 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 Palestinians were wounded Monday in rallies close to the Gaza-Israeli border, medics said.

Some 12 Palestinian demonstrators were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers gunfire, said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of health ministry in Gaza.

Dozens were treated in the field after they inhaled tear gas, he added.

Earlier Monday, al-Qedra announced that a 29-year-old Palestinian man, called Fares al-Reqeb, died of his wounds he sustained Friday, when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinian demonstrators and critically wounded him in the abdomen in eastern Gaza.

Unprecedented clashes between hundreds of Palestinian protestors and Israeli soldiers broke out Friday during a six-week rally of Palestinians called the "Great March of Return."

Israeli media had earlier announced that the Israeli Army kept its instructions of opening fire at Palestinian demonstrators near the fence of the border between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.

Al-Qedra said that since Friday, 16 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and more than 1,600 injured, most of them by live ammunition.

There are two other bodies held in the hands of the Israeli army, he added.