"We received orders from the Egyptian authorities to close the Rafah crossing after we partially opened it on Thursday," spokesman for Gaza's interior ministry Iyad al-Buzm said on Friday as cited in a report by Ma'an news agency.

The ministry strongly condemned the decision by Egypt as it had prepared buses and ambulances to take wounded Palestinians to the crossing.

Only 11 Palestinians were able to cross Rafah on Thursday when Egypt opened the crossing, al-Buzm added.

Over 600 Palestinians have been injured in persisting Israeli aggression on Gaza with hospitals in the besieged enclave struggling to cope with the large number of casualties.

During Israel's 2012 assault on Gaza, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi condemned "Israeli aggression" and sent his prime minister to Gaza in a show of support for the Palestinians.

Since the Egyptian military, led by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, overthrew Morsi in July 2013, Cairo has cracked down on supply tunnels to the Gaza Strip and has accused Hamas of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood in militant attacks inside Egypt, an allegation fiercely denied by the Palestinian resistance movement.

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