RAFAH, Dec 29, 2008 (AFP) - Egypt kept its Rafah crossing point into the Gaza Strip closed on Monday, a day after a policeman died from being hit by Palestinian gunfire, a security official said.
"The Rafah crossing is closed and will only be opened to allow the wounded through," a security official told AFP.
Egypt had opened the Rafah crossing on Saturday on the first day of a massive Israeli air operation against the Hamas movement which controls the impoverished Palestinian territory.
It closed it Sunday evening after dozens of Palestinians tried to climb over the border wall into Egypt -- some succeeding -- and an Egyptian border guard was killed when two bullets hit him in the chest.
Another guard was wounded by shots from the Gaza Strip direction.
The Israeli air strikes continued relentlessly on Monday, with Palestinian medics putting the number of Gazans killed so far in the bombardments at more than 300 with some 1,400 wounded.
Hamas has sent just eight wounded people to the crossing since it opened and they were unable to cross the border "because of firing by Palestinian elements," according to an Egyptian official statement.
Ala el-din Batta, a Hamas official on the Palestinian side of the border, told AFP by telephone that in fact 11 wounded people were held up at the frontier.
Egypt accused Hamas on Sunday of preventing hundreds of Palestinians injured in the Israeli attacks from leaving the Gaza Strip although ambulances were waiting for them on the Egyptian side of the frontier.
Demonstrations have been held across the Middle East against the Israeli air raids, with many protestors also railing against Egypt for not opening its border with the Gaza Strip to deliveries of basic supplies and to civilians wishing to flee the Israeli air strikes.
In Beirut late Sunday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah urged Egyptians in their "millions" to take to the streets to force their government to open the border with Gaza.
"People of Egypt, you must open this border by the force of your chests," he said in a televised address.
If Egypt did not open the Rafah crossing to Gaza, it would be considered a partner in the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli military, Nasrallah added.
Meanwhile, a consignment of 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid sent by Qatar remains at El-Arish airport, near the border with the Gaza Strip.
"We are waiting for the reopening of the Rafah terminal to allow its dispatch," Mohammed Abdel Fadih Shusha, governor of North Sinai province, told AFP.
The Israeli blitz on Gaza has killed more than 310 Palestinians and wounded at least 1,400 others, according to medics.
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