"The eyes of truth will never be blinded," protesters' placards read, as Palestinian journalists wore eye patches Sunday to decry the wounding of a colleague in the occupied West Bank.

Muath Amarneh has been in an Israeli hospital since he was hit in the eye Friday during clashes between Israeli border police and Palestinian demonstrators in the village of Surif, close to Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Dozens of Palestinian journalists rallied Sunday - protesting with one eye covered in solidarity.

Amarneh, who is being treated in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, said he was some way from the protesters when he was hit by what he believes was Israeli fire.

"After the clashes started, I was standing to the side wearing a flak jacket with press markings and a helmet," the freelance cameraman told AFP on Sunday.

"Suddenly I felt something hit my eye, I thought it was a rubber bullet or a stone. I put my hand to my eye and found nothing."

"I couldn't see and my eye was completely gone."

He said doctors at the hospital told him a fragment of metal, about 2 centimetres long, pierced the eye and settled behind it near the brain.

Amarneh's cousin Tareq, accompanying him in hospital, said doctors planned to extract the metal but changed their minds after discovering they could also damage the right eye or even trigger bleeding in the brain. A spokesman for the Israeli police denied that the photographer was targeted, saying fire was "not directed at all" toward him. Demonstrators wore eye patches and held signs aloft. Seven people were lightly wounded, according to Palestinian health officials.

In the city of Tulkarem, about 250 journalists took part in a sit-in to show solidarity, according to journalists present.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019