Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)

Abbas declared Saturday a day of national mourning. The dead and wounded were shot with a mixture of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel pellets and tear gas.

Friday’s protest was supported by all of Gaza’s main political factions and was timed to coincide with “Land Day,” an annual event when Palestinians remember the deaths of six Arab citizens killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations over land confiscations in northern Israel in 1976.