Source: Egypt opens Rafah crossing to allow hospital patients into Gaza

Egyptian authorities made an exception late Thursday and opened the Rafah border 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 the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur that "32 Palestinian patients and their attendants crossed the Rafah border Thursday evening."

Excepting humanitarian cases, Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing closed since the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The crossing is the only land outlet for the Gaza strip into Egypt.

According to a U.S.-brokered protocol, the Rafah crossing cannot be used without the presence of European Union monitors and the presence of Palestinian Authority security forces, loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, some 500 Palestinians stranded at the border threatened to demonstrate if they were not allowed to 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," said a man stuck at the crossing.