Cairo  - The US military attache to Egypt visited Wednesday the Rafah border crossing point to inspect the security situation along the 14-kilometre Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.

Locals told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Egyptian security forces were intensively deployed in the Sinai peninsula, especially along the Rafah border, during the visit.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Cairo refused to confirm the visit of the US military attache, but said that a US delegation is currently visiting Sinai.

On Monday, Egyptian authorities reopened the Rafah border to allow injured Palestinians to receive treatment in hospitals in Egypt.

Cross-border movement was prevented after Cairo closed the last breach in its border with the Gaza Strip on February 3, ending free movement for Palestinians through a hole blown in the border wall by Palestinian gunmen.

For 12 days, at least 350,000 Palestinians flooded Egypt's border towns to stock up on supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of the territory imposed in response to rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns. (dpa)