Cairo - Egyptian authorities made an exception late Thursday and opened the Rafah crossing to allow Palestinian patients coming from Egyptian hospitals to cross the border into the Gaza strip, according to sources.

A source at the crossing told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that "32 Palestinian patients and their attendants crossed the Rafah border Thursday evening."

Except for humanitarian reasons, Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing closed since the Islamist movement Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007. The crossing is the only land outlet for the Gaza strip into Egypt.

According to a US-brokered protocol, the Rafah crossing cannot be used without the presence of European Union monitors and security forces of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, there are around 500 stranded Palestinians at the border, who threatened to demonstrate if they did not cross the border by Saturday, after Egyptian authorities promised to let them through the crossing on Thursday and Friday.

"If the Egyptian government does not carry out its promises to open the crossing, we will sit-in on Saturday," a man stuck at the crossing told dpa. (dpa)