RAFAH (Updated) - Egyptian authorities Saturday re-opened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, after a temporary closure which had triggered angry protests at the site, witnesses said. "We have responded to calls be Palestinian travels and decided to open the crossing from both sides despite construction work. However, the passengers have to cross the gate on foot," an Egyptian source at the Rafah terminal was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. The Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, confirmed that Egypt had kept the gates of Rafah crossing point closed and had blocked the travel of the Gaza Strip population, before it re-opened it later. Dozens of passengers who were not aware of the decision gathered on the departure hall at the Palestinian side and held angry protests. The passengers, stuck between the Palestinian and Egyptian gates, left the buses and organized a sit-in protest, witnesses said. Later, they made their way to the Egyptian gate and forcibly entered the Egyptian hall. Witnesses said that the Egyptian gate was closed apparently for renovation and minor construction work. Hamas police escorted the protesters back across the border a short time later, after Egyptian soldiers ordered them to leave. There were no reports of any violence or arrests. The incident came as Palestinians were said to be planning marches to the Israeli borders from neighbouring Arab countries to mark a June 5 anniversary of Israel's capture of the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war. Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing, the only way in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, last month after it had been largely shut since June 2006 when Israel imposed a blockade after militants snatched an Israeli soldier. The Israeli blockade was tightened in 2007 when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the coastal territory, with Egypt cooperating by tightly restricting movement through Rafah. Border officials of Hamas said Egypt had set a maximum of 350 Gaza residents to be granted entry each day, though a senior Egyptian security official denied any quota had been imposed Egypt's decision to permanently reopen Rafah came more than three months after former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned following 18 days of massive street protests against his rule.
