(AFP) – Jan 26, 2008

RAFAH, Egypt (AFP) — Egypt said Saturday it would keep allowing Palestinians to cross the breached border and stock up on supplies for a fourth day of unfettered access from the Gaza Strip.

However, security forces moved to stop Gazans from penetrating into the Sinai peninsula beyond the border town of Rafah.

Cairo's wider concern was reflected in the fact that few security forces were posted at the border itself, most having been pulled back to reinforce checkpoints barring Palestinians from travelling through Egypt, an AFP correspondent reported.

Meanwhile, Palestinians using donkey-drawn carts, buses and trucks continued to pour across the breached border.

North Sinai Governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid said that "Palestinians will continue to cross until they get all their needs of commodities and foodstuffs" in response to an Israeli lockdown on their impoverished territory, and that Egyptian security forces had been instructed to facilitate the Palestinians' passage.

He said he was coordinating with the ministries of social solidarity and industry "to secure large amounts of commodities and products to meet the needs of the Palestinians in the country" because many shops had run out of stock.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told reporters in Cairo that Egypt will invite delegations from the rival Hamas and Fatah factions for separate talks to discuss the border situation in order to restore control.

"There is an Egyptian desire to control the border and to control the flow of Palestinians in and out of the Gaza Srip," he said after a ministerial meeting called by President Hosni Mubarak to discuss Gaza.

"There is also a desire to restore the arrangements which existed on the border," before Hamas routed forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June, he said.

Under an agreement reached in 2005, the Rafah border should be staffed by international observers but they withdrew completely after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June.

In Rafah, an Egyptian armoured car and armed border police stood by alongside Hamas militants as hundreds of vehicles crossed back and forth a day after bulldozers gouged two new breaches in the wall in defiance of Egypt's attempts to seal the frontier.

Fighting erupted at a petrol station on the Egyptian side of Rafah as stocks ran out, and one petrol attendant was hospitalised after a brawl with Palestinians and Egyptians desperate for fuel.

On Friday police used electric batons and water cannon in a bid to herd Palestinians back into confinement in Gaza after setting a deadline for everyone to go home, only to see Palestinian bulldozers pierce new breaches in the border wall.

Abul Gheit said around 40 security forces had been injured in clashes with Gazans since the border was first breached by militants in the early hours of Wednesday.

"There have been injuries, including 10 to 12 central security forces, 26 border guards and two high ranking officers," he said.

"Some of those being treated in hospital are in critical condition."

In Israel, some 2,000 left-wing activists and MPs held a rally Saturday outside the locked down Erez Crossing with the Gaza Strip to protest the blockade, bringing with them two trucks laden with foodstuff they wished to transport into Gaza.

The United Nations said at least 700,000 Gazans have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies -- nearly half the territory's population of 1.5 million.

According to Palestinian analyst Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, Hamas is reaping the benefit from the blockade and the temporary opening of the border.

"Hamas has gained in popularity in Gaza and the West Bank while (Palestinian) Authority president Mahmud Abbas is even more weakened," given his negotiations with Israel.

The Israeli army on Saturday said it had banned citizens from entering areas along the 100 kilometre-long (65-mile) frontier with Egypt, fearing attacks by Palestinian militants who had gone to Egypt from Gaza.

The military closed tourist sites and hiking trails in areas east of the border and in a statement urged people not to get too close to those areas.

On Friday the Israeli authorities closed the main road along the desert border. The counter-terrorism headquarters also called on all Israelis in the Sinai to return, citing fears of possible abduction by Palestinian militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government last week blocked fuel and aid shipments into Gaza amid violence in which 45 people, most of them militants, were killed in Israeli raids over the past 10 days.

Israel says its blockade strategy and raids are aimed at halting militant rocket fire on its territory, with 10 people slightly wounded over as many days from a barrage of some 200 rockets or mortar rounds.

The Palestinians and human rights groups such as Amnesty International say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

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