The Israeli military alleged that Hamas operatives had tried to use the chaos of the riots to damage the border fence. A spokesman said there were at least four attempts to throw improvised bombs towards Israeli forces.

No Israelis were killed or wounded during either the demonstrations on Friday or the clashes last week.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, had earlier appealed to the Israeli military to use "extreme caution with the use of force in order to avoid casualties" among demonstrators.

Human rights groups have criticised the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) for its policy of directing sniper fire on those who come too close to the fence, arguing that lethal force is only permissible to counter an imminent threat to life.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, of the IDF, said Israel was "using less lethal means to the greatest extent possible before using lethal means". He said Israeli forces were justified in opening fire to prevent Palestinians breaking through the Gaza border fence.

"The reason we are so adamant about the integrity of the fence is because it is all that separates thousands of rioters from the nearest Israeli targets, which could be a kibbutz, or a farm, or other Israeli communities, or Israeli soldiers," he said.

The protests were significantly less bloody than last week, when 16 Palestinians were killed during the day and others died later from their injuries.

Palestinians at a protest site east of Gaza City said the vast plumes of tyre smoke had also reduced the killings.

"The burning tyres helped us because snipers can't see us. But also people did not go as far as this week because they did not want to go past the smoke," said one man.

Many women and children stood amid the crowds at the border and young Palestinians flew colourful kites into the blackened skies, where they shared airspace with Israeli surveillance drones.

Israel claims that Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the US and UK, was behind the demonstrations. Several senior Hamas leaders did visit protest camps on Friday.

But most of the people gathered at the border said they were not affiliated with Hamas or any other faction. The protests are expected to continue every Friday until May 15, when Palestinians commemorate "the Nakba", the Arabic word for catastrophe, when they were displaced from their homes in 1948.

Telegraph, London