Palestinians hold out their passports as they wait to cross to Egypt at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

Rafah, Gaza Strip, 2008 July 3, Alalam

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip Thursday, while the Israeli regime closed the crossings to the impoverished territory, witnesses said.

Rafah crossing was opened to allow scores of stranded Palestinians to return to the besieged territory after thousands of Palestinians stormed the border in a bid to flee the impoverished territory.

The Gaza Strip, home to about 1.4 million residents, has been reeling from a crippling Israeli blockade since a year ago.

In the ensuing clashes, Egyptian security forces drove the crowd away from the border with water cannon as Palestinians hurled rocks before being dispersed by baton-wielding Hamas security men.

Egypt was to open the crossing for two days beginning on Tuesday for people in need of advanced medical care and those with foreign visas for work or study, but allowed only around 200 Palestinians to leave Gaza.

It then sealed the crossing amid Wednesday's unrest without allowing anyone to cross.

The Hamas-run interior ministry confirmed in a statement that it had coordinated the opening of the crossing with Egypt on Thursday to allow stranded Palestinians to return but provided no further details.

The Rafah crossing, the only gateway to Gaza that bypasses Israel, has rarely been opened since June 2007.

Hamas has repeatedly demanded the crossing be opened and operated by Egyptian and Palestinian officials, while Israel has said it should be governed by a 2005 agreement that provided for international and Israeli monitoring.

Meanwhile, the Israeli regime closed border crossings to Gaza Thursday after a retaliatory rocket was fired from the territory.

An army spokesman claimed a Qassam rocket was fired from the Beit Hanun area to Sderotn in south of the occupied territories.

Several rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel from Gaza since a truce between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement went into effect.

The truce was supposed to lead to the easing of a crippling blockade Israel imposed more than a year ago, but the Israeli military drags its feet on implementation of the deal.