Palestinian gunmen blew a six-metre hole in the border wall between Gaza and Egypt today, allowing Gazans who had been stranded on the closed border for two weeks to enter the coastal strip, witnesses said.
At least 70 masked gunmen took part in the operation. Many of them belonged to Hamas's armed wing, witnesses said.
After the explosion, hundreds of Palestinians crossed into Gaza, some cheering "God is Greatest".
One man exclaimed: "We are free. We are back home."
The Palestinian government said six Palestinians, including an infant, have died while stranded on the closed Egypt-Gaza border.
The bodies of two of the dead were allowed into Gaza earlier today.
Earlier the Israeli army declared today it had pulled out from the central Gaza Strip.
"IDF forces (Israeli Defence Forces) have currently completed their activities in the area," the army said in a statement.
It entered Gaza as part of an offensive launched last month to free an abducted soldier.
The army said its forces overnight targeted a Hamas office in the northern Gaza Strip and a bridge.
Israeli troops fired a tank shell at a vehicle, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.