Egypt and Palestinians trade fire at border

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces exchanged fire at the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday, killing one person and wounding 59 others a day after Cairo closed the breached frontier with the Hamas-run enclave.

At least 45 Egyptian policemen and 14 Palestinians were wounded in the clash at the Rafah border crossing, which Hamas Islamists blasted open on January 23 to let Gazans stock up on supplies in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.

The dead person was identified by local medical officials as a Palestinian civilian. Two Egyptians suffered gunshot wounds and one senior security official sustained fractures from stone throwing, security sources and medical officials said.

Hamas denied any role in the fighting, which began after Egyptian security men stopped the flow of people trying to go back home and the crowd responded with stone-throwing, drawing smoke grenades from the Egyptians, local residents said.

"We have shut our doors and our windows. People here are terrified because tear gas can cause children to suffocate," one resident in the Egyptian side of the Rafah border town told Reuters by telephone.

"We are also worried that if people cross from the other side, they might hurt us," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing police persecution.

Egyptian security officials said Palestinians threw petrol bombs at the police and border guards and at the border wall separating Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian government faces a difficult balancing act. It does not want to be seen as aiding the Israeli blockade, but is under U.S. and Israeli pressure to take control. It also fears the spread of Islamist influence and the effects of becoming home to so many undocumented Palestinians.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the clash at Rafah was "unfortunate", adding: "Hamas renews its call for self restraint."

Tensions calmed after Hamas said Egyptian officials agreed to more talks. Egyptians in Gaza were later allowed to cross back into Egypt, according to one Egyptian security official.

On Sunday, Egyptian forces used barbed wire and metal barricades to seal the only remaining gap on the Egyptian side of the frontier at Rafah, a town straddling the border.

But Egyptian authorities said Egyptians visiting Gaza and Gazans who traveled to Egypt would be allowed to return home.

Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip by force in June after routing President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah forces, had been under pressure from Egypt to stop the flow of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who crossed the frontier.

(Reporting by Alaa Shahine in Cairo, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Editing by Jon Boyle)