Witnesses said Palestinian taxis drove passengers across the border three days after Palestinian militants blasted it open in defiance of an Israeli blockade, and Gaza-plated cars and trucks entered Egypt to bring back supplies of food and fuel.
No Egyptian soldiers were visible at the border. An Egyptian security source said forces had received orders from Cairo to pull back and avoid confronting Palestinians.
"I am entering with my car to get diesel. I went to the petrol stations in Rafah but didn't find any, so I bought on the black market," said taxi driver Abu Jihad, 48, of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
He said he had filled the tank of his taxi and had also packed his car with jerrycans of diesel to bring back to Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Mohamed Ali al-Shahed, 32, drove his car into Egypt to retrieve a shipment of drugs ordered from Cairo for his pharmacy in Rafah on the Palestinian side of the divided border town.
"I haven't had new drugs in my pharmacy for seven months ... Thank God the pharmacy now has medicine, and at more moderate prices," he said as he drove back into Gaza, guiding an Egyptian truck filled with medicines into the Palestinian territory.
Israel said it had imposed its blockade to try to counter cross-border rocket fire. The fall of the Rafah wall punched a new hole in a U.S.-backed campaign to curb Hamas's clout and boost Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas nearly eight months after the Islamist group routed Abbas's Fatah forces in Gaza.
On Friday, Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire and chain-link fences to stop more people crossing. But Hamas militants, cheered on by crowds of Gazans, used a bulldozer to flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence.
Tensions flared at one point when Palestinians threw stones at Egyptian police, who responded with batons and water cannon.
Egyptian state news agency MENA said 22 Egyptian security men were injured while trying to contain the crowd. Egyptian security sources at the border said seven security men were injured, 6 by stones and one shot in the foot.
Adel Salman, an Egyptian government employee who lives near the border, said he had seen truckloads of police leaving on Friday evening. One security source said Egyptian forces were told to allow the border to remain open for three more days, while others said no time limit had been set.
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 hosting so many Palestinians without identity papers.
Israeli officials said Abbas planned to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, seeking support for controlling the crossings and for renewed peace talks despite the setbacks. Citing the breach in Gaza's southern border, some top Israeli officials have advocated cutting Israel's remaining links with the coastal territory and putting the onus on Egypt.
Israel, which occupied Gaza in 1967, pulled its troops out and settlers in 2005 but still controls the strip's northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters.