The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Rafah

Egyptian and Hamas forces sealed off the border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday after reportedly agreeing to control the frontier, blown open nearly two weeks ago amid an Israeli blockade.

Metal barriers and barbed wire had been strung across all gaps in the breached border at the divided town of Rafah through which hundreds of thousands of people have swarmed since January 23.

"Security forces have starting closing the border," an Egyptian security source told AFP. "No more Palestinians are being allowed in."

One gate remained open to allow Palestinians and Egyptians to return home, but otherwise no pedestrians or vehicles were being allowed to cross, AFP correspondents witnessed.

Dozens of armed and helmeted Hamas men wielded batons at a crowd of a few dozen people at the main Salaheddin crossing, yelling and pushing them back further into Gaza.

A handful of angry Palestinians threw stones at Egyptian security forces after the border was closed, an AFP correspondent said. Hamas forces fired in the air but no injuries were reported.

Up to half the Gaza population swarmed into Egypt through the breached border at Rafah, the only door to the outside world that bypasses Israel, after the Jewish state tightened its siege by halting fuel and aid supplies.

"We have started to implement the measure to close the border between Egypt and Gaza," a spokesman for the Hamas-run interior ministry, Ihad Hussein, told AFP in Gaza.

The closure of "will last until we have a new agreement to open the Rafah crossing," he said.