GAZA, Aug 9, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Israel backed down on Wednesday from its decision to temporarily reopen Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza Strip due to security reasons, a spokeswoman for the European Union monitoring team said.
The spokeswoman said that the EU monitors were told by the Israeli army early on Wednesday they could not go to the crossing because of security alerts there.
'We were also told that a roadside bomb was planted on the road leading to the terminal,' she said.
The EU monitors supervising work at the crossing held a meeting on Wednesday morning with the Israeli side in a bid to reach another agreement on the crossing, after Israel revoked its decision to reopen the terminal on Wednesday as agreed earlier, she added.
On Tuesday, Palestinian officials confirmed that the terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt would be opened on Wednesday on one direction to allow Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip after more than 40 days of closure.
Rafah was closed by the Jewish state on June 25 after a deadly cross-border raid in which Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers and seized a third, sparking a month-long offensive in the coastal strip.
The crossing was previously reopened on July 18-19 to allow Palestinians stranded in Egypt to go home.