Sixty-five people were injured on Wednesday as Israeli forces used live fire and tear gas against 10,000 protesters commemorating Nakba Day, the Health Ministry in Gaza said.

Large crowds gathered on the Gaza-Israel border after Hamas announced a general strike and closed schools to mark the annual event.

Among the 65 injured were 22 children and five women. One person is in a “serious condition”, while 16 people were wounded by live fire and 14 by rubber bullets, Haaretz reports.

Each year Palestinians mark the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, when roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced during the 1948 war.

Nakba Day is generally observed by Palestinians on May 15, the day after the Gregorian calendar date of Israeli Independence Day, and is marked by wide-scale marches.

Last year Israeli forces killed 60 people in one day at the Gaza border, as thousands of Palestinians protested the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

One person was arrested on Wednesday after attempting to cross into Israel.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said about 10,000 “rioters and demonstrators” gathered at several locations along the frontier.

An IDF spokesman said: “The rioters are setting tyres on fire and hurling rocks. A number of explosive devices have been hurled within the Gaza Strip, and a number of attempts have been made to approach the security fence.”

Marches also took place in the West Bank, in Ramallah and Bethlehem.