Egyptian authorities on Thursday opened the Rafah border crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip for a three-day period.
On Wednesday, Cairo announced that the terminal would remain open until Saturday to allow Palestinians to cross the border in both directions.
According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent based in Gaza, buses loaded with passengers began inching towards the border crossing on Thursday morning.
Blockaded by Israel -- by air, land and sea -- since 2007, the Gaza Strip has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world.
Six of these are controlled by Israel, while the seventh -- at Rafah -- is controlled by Egypt, which keeps it tightly sealed for the most part since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in a 2013 military coup.
Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in June 2007 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas wrested control of the strip from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
