Cairo/Gaza City  - Egypt on Wednesday opened the Rafah border crossing for two days to allow Palestinians stranded on both sides of the border to cross, Gaza's Interior Ministry and Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

Trucks carrying humanitarian supplies and more than 100 Palestinians that had been stranded in Egypt crossed into the Palestinian enclave via the Rafah crossing, MENA reported.

Gaza's Interior Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said that it had struck a deal with Egyptian authorities whereby Palestinian patients would be allowed into Egypt for treatment, and that students and non-Palestinians would be allowed to cross into Egypt Thursday.

The deal came after Gaza's Interior Ministry turned people away from the Rafah crossing, following disputes with the Egyptian side on the number of travellers.

Hamas had said the measure was aimed at protesting Egypt's decision to unilaterally open the crossing point without prior arrangement with the Hamas authorities.

"We reject the mechanism that is currently used in opening the crossing," a statement by the ministry said, two days after Egypt announced that it would open the crossing for humanitarian cases.

The ministry says Egypt did not officially notify the Gaza rulers about its intention to open the crossing point, adding that it wants the only gate for Gazans to open "in a way securing their dignity and comfort."

When Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007, Egypt and Israel maintained the closure of their borders with the coastal enclave.

Under an agreement brokered by the US in 2005, the Rafah crossing cannot open without the presence of the Palestinian president's forces and European Union monitors. (dpa)