RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Egyptian security forces used water cannon on Wednesday to keep thousands of Palestinians from storming across the border from Gaza, where Israel was due to ease a punishing blockade by opening crossings and allowing in truckloads of supplies.

"Egyptian security forces are using water cannons to control thousands of Palestinians who are trying to enter Egypt," a Palestinian security official said, adding that calm was later restored.

Witnesses on the Gaza side of the border said hundreds of Palestinians had stormed the border terminal in Rafah as Israel was easing the blockade of the impoverished territory.

Six members of Egyptian security forces were lightly injured when Palestinians threw rocks at them, the official said, adding that Egypt later gave security forces an order "not to respond to Palestinian provocation."

"This was done in agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip who have taken control of the situation," the official told AFP.

Egypt had deployed dozens of extra troops near the Rafah crossing itself and many more along the border with the Gaza Strip.

"Palestinians are angry because they say the numbers being allowed into Egypt are limited," the official said.

He said no Palestinians had entered Egypt from Rafah on Wednesday and just over 200 had entered on Tuesday, adding: "Palestinians had expected that many more would be allowed in."

In January, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crossed into Egypt to stock up on vital supplies after militants blew up large parts of the border amid a punishing Israeli blockade.

Two weeks later Egyptian security forces and Hamas gunmen closed the border.

The Gaza Strip was set meanwhile to receive its first cement shipment in a year as Israel reopened border crossings it shut down after militant rocket attacks last week that breached a truce.

Israeli military officials later said the crossings were opened but no details were available on what volume of goods had been delivered.

On Wednesday morning, dozens of empty lorries were lined up on the Palestinian side of the Sufa crossing waiting to load the shipments of cement and other supplies.

Israel, which blacklists Hamas as a terror group, imposed the embargo after the Islamists violently seized power in the densely-populated coastal strip more than a year ago.

As part of the Egyptian-mediated truce, Israel agreed to gradually ease the embargo but has kept the border crossings closed on most days since the ceasefire went into effect on June 19 in retaliation for rocket attacks.

On Wednesday it was to have reopened the three crossings used to deliver fuel, grain and other basic goods to Gaza. A total of about 150 truckloads were expected to be shipped into Gaza, Lerner said.

Before the truce an average of 60 truckloads made their way into the sliver of land where the majority of the 1.5 million population rely on foreign aid to survive.

Hamas has insisted it is respecting the truce and trying to prevent other armed groups from firing rockets at southern Israel.

Two people were lightly wounded on June 24 when three rockets were fired at southern Israel. The Islamic Jihad movement claimed the attack but later agreed to abide by the ceasefire.

On June 26, a rocket fired by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to the Fatah movement of secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, hit near the Israeli town of Sderot.

On Monday a rocket landed in an open field in southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Palestinians and UN officials have said Israeli soldiers had also violated the truce, firing shots across the border into Gaza several times, wounding at least two people.

In the latest incident on Tuesday, a Palestinian woman, Aisha Ataya, 35, was shot in the foot near the border in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian medics.

The Israeli army said it only fired warning shots in the air.

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