Egypt deports 350 Palestinians back to Gaza

Egypt has deported some 350 Palestinians, rounded up in North Sinai over the past four days, to Gaza, security sources said on Monday.

"The Salaheddin border gate was opened this evening and the Palestinians were transported in buses to the city of Rafah and then to Gaza," one security source said.

Egyptian security forces said earlier that police had rounded up some 500 Palestinians and was holding them at a youth hostel in the provincial capital el-Arish.

"The remaining ... Palestinians will be deported in the next few hours," the security source said.

The group is part of at least 3,000 Palestinians left inside Egypt after hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents crossed the border in January to seek relief from an Israeli blockade.

The Egyptian government held talks last week with the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, which runs Gaza, but the two sides have not announced any agreement for the border to reopen.