Guns were fired on Tuesday at the Gaza-Egypt border during protests against Israel’s blockade of the coastal strip.
Dozens of Palestinian protesters stormed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, pushing past Egyptian riot police, live footage from the al-Jazeera TV network showed.
Earlier, hundreds of Palestinian women had surged toward the border, prompting Egyptian guards to fire into the air and use water cannon to push them back.
About 60 people were hurt, most of them from falling or fainting during the scuffles, health officials said.
Since Hamas militants seized control of Gaza last June, Egypt has joined Israel in severely restricting access to Gaza, largely keeping its border terminal closed.
The border disturbances came as Israel eased its blockade of Gaza by allowing the temporary resumption of fuel and food shipments to the beleaguered territory amid warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
Five tankers pumped fuel for Gaza’s power plant through the Nahal Oz crossing, enough to provide electricity to Gaza City for two days. Three other tankers pumped cooking oil.
Israel was expected to allow a single shipment of food and medicine through the Kerem Shalom crossing later on Tuesday.
The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said the administration spoke to Israeli officials ”about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold”. Israeli officials were receptive, she said, adding that she blamed Hamas for the situation.
Israel closed its border crossings with Gaza on Friday to put pressure on Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets into southern Israel.
Large areas of Gaza, where about 1,5-million people live, have been without power in the past few days, with hospitals cancelling non-essential surgery and local residents stockpiling food.
The lack of power mainly affected Gaza City, which receives its electricity from the closed plant. Other areas of Gaza are supplied directly by Israel and Egypt, neither of which cut off power.
Kanan Obied, the head of Gaza’s energy authority, said Israel would on Tuesday supply the power plant with 700 000 litres of the 2,2-million it had pledged. The rest would be supplied in the next two days.
Israeli defence officials emphasised to the Ha’aretz newspaper that only minimal fuel supplies and medicine would be allowed into Gaza under this one-off easing of the blockade, saying it should not be interpreted as a change in Israel’s policy.
”The message we wanted to send was received in Gaza,” an official told the paper. ”On Thursday, some 40 rockets were fired against Israel from the strip, and today … just a few.
”The military and economic pressure seems to be having an effect and, if the shooting of Qassam rockets picks up again, we will not hesitate to reimpose a full blockade.”
The EU and international agencies have condemned the Israeli blockade as ”collective punishment”, which is banned under the Geneva conventions.
Israel said conditions in Gaza had not reached crisis levels, accusing Hamas of exaggerating the impact of the border closures.
Moments before Israel began its first shipments, militants fired four Qassam rockets. One hit a Negev kibbutz, two landed at the entrance to the town of Sderot and the fourth hit an open area. No one was wounded, and no damage was reported.
Amid the worsening crisis in Gaza, the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, held talks with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, in London.
Miliband said the international community had a role to play in calming tensions in the region, and that political negotiations must go hand in hand with practical change on the ground, including improved border security and economic development for the Palestinian people.
Regular clashes have broken out between Israeli troops and Hamas Islamists since they seized power in Gaza after routing forces loyal to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas said he would not pull out of peace talks with Israel despite the situation in Gaza. He has been under growing pressure at home to suspend the US-backed negotiations, which are supposed to lead to a peace deal this year 2008.
”Halting contacts with Israel is useless,” he said. ”On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people.” – Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008