JERUSALEM, 7 August 2004 — The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened yesterday, ending nearly three weeks of misery for thousands of Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, shot dead a Palestinian belonging to the Hamas movement and arrested a second gunman from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades near a northern West Bank settlement.

The pair were spotted approaching a group of soldiers near the town of Salfit, just south of the Ariel settlement, and troops “opened fire killing one of them”, an army spokeswoman said.

Palestinian security sources named the dead man as Mohamed Talasmeh.

Earlier, troops in southern Gaza also shot dead a would-be bomber from the Islamic Jihad group, witnesses and the army said.

The army said 40 kilograms of explosives were found near his body.

On the Gaza-Egypt border, travelers were able to cross for the first time since the frontier was closed by Israel on July 18 for security reasons.

An Israeli border official, Anat Mor, said the crossing would be open every day unless security concerns forced a new closure.

A senior Egyptian official said late last month that Israel claimed to have intelligence that a tunnel under the crossing was packed with explosives and could be blown up at any time.

The plight of some 3,400 stranded Palestinians sparked a raft of appeals by the Palestinian Authority (PA), rights groups and foreign governments, including the United States, for them to be allowed to pass.

Three stranded pregnant women suffered miscarriages at the border.

The Israeli Army has carried out numerous raids on the border town of Rafah in a bid to uncover and destroy cross-border weapons smuggling tunnels.

Over the last few months, troops have destroyed hundreds of buildings in the town, leaving thousands of Palestinians homeless.

Cross-border weapons smuggling was the central issue at a secret meeting between Israeli officials and a high-ranking Egyptian military delegation earlier this week, the Haaretz daily reported yesterday.

The discussions fell within the broader framework of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial plan to withdraw all troops and settlements from Gaza.

Egypt is hoping to take a leading role in the future of the territory, and has offered to help the PA maintain order there after the pullout which is due to be completed by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, following a high-profile meeting between Sharon and top White House envoy Elliot Abrams, Israel appeared set to scale back its planned construction of new houses in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, public television reported Thursday.

According to the report, the Sharon administration has scrapped plans for around a quarter of the 600 new homes it was planning to erect in the settlement, the largest in the West Bank.

At the meeting, Abrams was thought to have criticized the plans, as well as a project to build a new settlement in the area.

Under terms of the Middle East peace road map, Israel is required to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied territories.

— With input from agencies