A trickle of Egyptians made it into Gaza, and they got a warm welcome.

One Egyptian truck driver ignored a policeman's order to stop and rolled through an intersection in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Instead of being reprimanded by the normally stern Hamas traffic police, he was cheered by onlookers.

Said Mohammed stood in a Gaza City market, next to his pickup truck with red Egyptian license plates. From the back of the truck, two men, who had paid Mohammed to deliver the cargo, sold Egyptian-imported smoked herring to curious residents.

After the border breach, Mohammed drove for days to dodge Egyptian security checkpoints, making money by renting his truck to Palestinians who wanted to ferry goods into Gaza.

"I've always wanted to see Palestine anyway," said a smiling Mohammed, a slight dark man with black eyes. Pointing to cars crowding a nearby street, he said: "I thought conditions here would be harder than this. I thought people would be starving."

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