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Palestinians and an ambulance wait to cross the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza strip.
"They spent the night in front of the crossing asking to be let in and continued protesting on Saturday," the official said.
Carrying Palestinian flags, they chanted "Palestine is Arab," "Open the border," and "Lift the blockade," witnesses told AFP.
The impoverished enclave of 1.5 million people has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
By Saturday afternoon, most of the activists had started making their way back to Cairo, the official said.
Authorities also denied entry to two trucks carrying humanitarian aid sent by the people of the Egyptian province of Daqahliya.
"Authorities forced the truck drivers to head back to the (north Sinai) town of El-Arish saying that the Rafah crossing was only for the passage of people not goods," one of the organisers, MP Mohsen Radi, said.
Amid the international outcry over an Israeli commando operation against a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which killed nine Turkish activists in international waters on June 1, Egypt announced it was opening its Rafah border crossing.
The surprise move has allowed some additional aid into Gaza but only some Palestinians, such as those seeking treatment or study abroad, are permitted to cross.
The Egyptian opposition has long campaigned against the government's refusal to fully open the Gaza border, even at the height of the deadly offensive which Israel launched against the territory in December 2008.
Opposition parties have accused the authorities of being complicit in the Israeli blockade through their construction of an underground barrier intended to prevent smugglers tunnelling under the border.
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Carrying Palestinian flags, they chanted "Palestine is Arab," "Open the border," and "Lift the blockade," witnesses told AFP.
The impoverished enclave of 1.5 million people has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
By Saturday afternoon, most of the activists had started making their way back to Cairo, the official said.
Authorities also denied entry to two trucks carrying humanitarian aid sent by the people of the Egyptian province of Daqahliya.
"Authorities forced the truck drivers to head back to the (north Sinai) town of El-Arish saying that the Rafah crossing was only for the passage of people not goods," one of the organisers, MP Mohsen Radi, said.
Amid the international outcry over an Israeli commando operation against a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which killed nine Turkish activists in international waters on June 1, Egypt announced it was opening its Rafah border crossing.
The surprise move has allowed some additional aid into Gaza but only some Palestinians, such as those seeking treatment or study abroad, are permitted to cross.
The Egyptian opposition has long campaigned against the government's refusal to fully open the Gaza border, even at the height of the deadly offensive which Israel launched against the territory in December 2008.
Opposition parties have accused the authorities of being complicit in the Israeli blockade through their construction of an underground barrier intended to prevent smugglers tunnelling under the border.
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