A demonstration on the Israel-Gaza Strip border, March 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem.

Around 5,000 Palestinians rioted at three locations on the Israel-Gaza Strip border on Friday, the IDF said.

The rioters threw improvised explosive devices, firebombs and rocks at Israeli troops and damaged the border fence in several spots.

IDF troops responded with riot-dispersal means. Health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza said 55 demonstrators were injured, including 29 by live fire.

Border violence has been a near-weekly occurrence since the Hamas-orchestrated “Great March of Return” protests began in March 2018.

When asked on Thursday about continued sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, including several such incidents this past week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who is facing a stiff challenge from ex-IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White alliance, in the Knesset elections that will take place on Tuesday — said, “We will probably be forced, there’ll be no choice, to enter into a campaign, a war, in Gaza.”

He added, however, that he would not risk soldiers’ and civilians’ lives “just to get applause,” and he was vague about when any such operation might start.