An IDF soldier was lightly injured during violent clashes on the Gaza border on Friday afternoon.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that some 6,000 Palestinian Arabs participated in the violent riots along the border and threw grenades and explosives at the border fence and damaging a military vehicle.

The soldier was injured from a firecracker or a grenade, the statement said. He was taken to hospital for treatment. The incident is being investigated.

The IDF said the soldiers used riot dispersal means against the protesters.

The Hamas-run Gaza “health ministry” reported that 54 people were injured, 30 of them as a result of IDF gunfire, during the demonstrations, known as the “March of the Return”, which have been going on every week since March of 2018.

Earlier on Friday, four Palestinian Arabs who tried to infiltrate Israeli territory with grenades and a knife were arrested and taken for interrogation by the security forces.

Also on Friday, a fire broke out in the Sdot Negev Regional Council as a result of an incendiary balloon sent by Gaza terrorists. Firefighters who arrived at the scene extinguished the flames.

The incidents follow a report in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper that Egypt had offered Hamas to broker a long-term ceasefire between Gaza and Israel in exchange for improvement in Gaza's humanitarian and economic conditions.

According to the report, Hamas has not responded to the offer, but promised to bring it up with the group's leadership.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)