Now, young Gazans are talking about staging a «Flower Friday,» a «Coffin Friday,» and even a «Shoes Friday» at which demonstrators would fling footwear at soldiers to protest Israel’s longstanding blockade of the impoverished territory and its two million residents.

Palestinians seem enthusiastic about sustaining a nonviolent form of protest. Israel’s harsh response to it and the mounting Palestinian death toll have put the conflict with Israel back on the international agenda.

«The Arab leaders, especially in the Gulf, thought they could neglect the Palestinian cause,» said Omar Shaban, director of a Gaza think tank. «But it reminds them, the U.S., Israel, the Europeans — all of them — that the problem is still there, guys. Things might seem to be stable, but no. It’s boiling.»

For Gazans, even a tentative experiment with nonviolent protest is a significant step.

The Israelis have long been worried about such a shift. And they now find the world paying attention as they use disproportionate force to prevent a breach in the fence.

Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, saw the demonstrations as an opportunity.

«This is not a battle that protesters are coming to with guns,» Mr. Munayyer said. «They’re coming to it with their bodies and they’re confronting very real policies of violent repression. The protesters paid with their lives to get people to question whether these policies are justifiable.»

«Frankly, I think this is Israel’s Achilles’ heel,» he added, «and it’s very important in this moment for the international community to be supportive of the protesters. They’ve always said, ‘Abandon militancy, abandon violence.’ »

Gaza’s economy is in collapse. Hospitals are short on medicine and there is electricity only for a few hours at a time. The water is undrinkable and raw sewage is pumped into the sea. While Gaza was poor and crowded to begin with, the 11-year-old blockade by Israel and Egypt has driven it into crisis.

The so-called Great Return March began on March 30 and is meant to continue every Friday for several weeks, culminating in a mass demonstration on May 15. That is Nakba Day, which commemorates the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the Israeli war for independence in 1948.

On March 30, some 30,000 people attended the first Friday demonstration and 20 were killed by Israeli soldiers, according to Gaza health officials. Videos showed that some were shot while they had their backs turned to the fence.

The next Friday, the crowds were thinner, but nine more Palestinians were killed.

Israel, trying to explain its use of lethal force, released photos and video of a few Palestinians trying to penetrate the fence and said others had thrown firebombs at its soldiers. Israel’s Kan Radio reported that at least eight attempts were made to plant explosives along the fence.

But while many protesters threw stones or rolled burning tires toward the fence, far more could be seen doing little more than standing around — chanting, singing and shouting.

«These demonstrations have made the Palestinian people’s voice heard, and made the world hear its scream,» said Ahmed Abu Artema, a Gazan social-media activist who dreamed up the protest. «The aim of the siege is a fatal force targeting us. But we’ve decided to turn this pain into a positive spirit.»

Many protesters approached the fence, venturing into a buffer zone that Israel had declared hundreds of meters into the Gaza side. And many of those were shot at by soldiers, according to Gaza health officials.

«What the Israelis are defending is not lives. They’re defending a fence,» Mr. Munayyer said. «That’s not the standard when it comes to the use of lethal force.»

Many Gazans have been talking about the demonstration’s final day, on May 15, as a moment for masses of protesters to try to cross the fence into Israel. That remains a nightmare scenario for Israel, according to Giora Eiland, a retired general and former head of Israel’s National Security Council.

«This might create a real challenge to us because we do not want to shoot and kill dozens and hundreds of people,» he said. «And at the same time we do not want them to cross into Israel, because we cannot tolerate it.»

Israelis have long feared a change to peaceful protests.