By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators on Friday returned to the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, where for the last four months they have been staging regular anti-occupation rallies.

In a statement, Gaza’s National Authority for Breaking the Siege renewed its call to the people of Gaza to take part in the ongoing demonstrations.

Since the rallies first kicked off on Mar. 30, 155 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along 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 decade-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.