THOUSANDS of Palestinians flooded into Egypt from Gaza for a fourth successive day yesterday as frantic negotiations began to find ways of sealing the border.

Gazans, many of them crossing in cars for the first time, continued to stock up on food, cooking gas, petrol and cigarettes after shortages caused by an Israeli blockade.

The blockade was designed to punish Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, for failing to curb rocket attacks on Israel.

In a meeting due to take place today, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of the mainstream faction Fatah, is expected to ask Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, to hand control of Gaza’s border crossings to his Palestinian National Authority.

This would provide a face-saving route for Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, whose troops have failed to reseal the border. He has shied away from using force, even though his foreign minister admitted yesterday that nearly 40 security personnel had been injured, including two critically, in incidents over the past few days.

Efforts by Egyptian police to close the border on Friday failed when they were overrun by sheer force of numbers. Yesterday another attempt by riot police to seal it by forming human chains also had to be abandoned.

Palestinian sources said that Abbas would now suggest to Olmert that after Egypt finally seals its border, Israel could reopen its own crossing into Gaza. Abbas’s troops could then control the crossing, the sources said.

It was unclear yesterday whether the proposal, which has Egyptian backing, could go ahead. Abbas mounted a renewed attack on Hamas, whose cooperation he would need, urging it to reverse its takeover of Gaza last year, which he called a “crime”.

Israel is deeply concerned by the breakdown of control on the Egyptian border. It has warned its citizens that they could be vulnerable to attacks by Palestinians in Egypt.

Gaza tunnel diggers, who smuggle goods and arms from Egypt beneath the border, are also unhappy.

“They invested £50,000 digging each tunnel and charged a fortune to rent it. Now they are broke, as Gazans are using the open border,” said a Palestinian official.

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