Gaza residents on Sunday breached the border fence with Egypt in several places and hundreds have crossed the frontier prompting Egyptian border guards to open fire, said officials and witnesses on both sides of the border.

The breach came one day after Israel launched the largest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip since it captured the territory in 1967, leaving some 286 people dead and scores wounded.

An Egyptian security official said there were at least five breaches along the 9 mile (14 kilometer) border and hundreds of Palestinian residents were pouring in.

At least 300 Egyptian border guards rushed to the area to reseal the border, the official added on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

A resident of the Gaza Strip side of the border, Fida Kishta, said that Egyptian border guards opened fire to drive back the Palestinians. Residents also commandeered a bulldozer to open new breaches.

Egyptian state television reported that Hamas security forces shot an Egyptian border guard and killed him. An Egyptian security source said Hamas forces had also shot an Egyptian policeman in the leg.

The border breach came shortly after Israel Defense Forces aircraft bombed more than 40 tunnels linking the blockaded Gaza Strip with Egypt's Sinai desert.

"The air force just attacked over 40 tunnels found on the Gaza side of the border. Those tunnels, we believe, were used for smuggling weapons, explosives and sometimes people," an IDF spokeswoman told reporters.

Palestinian sources reported that two people had been killed in the strike. Witnesses said that fires raged in the area and that dozens of explosions were heard.

Meanwhile Sunday, the IDF announced its intention to call up 6,700 reservists to duty, as the operation in Gaza continued.

"The Israel Defense Forces will, in the coming days, call up more reservists," Cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel told reporters after ministers met for a special session Sunday to discuss the operation.

Defense officials said some reservists had already been mobilized to help in protecting communities on the Gaza border from retaliatory Palestinian rocket salvoes. New reservists would help complete the armed forces'

preparations for a possible escalation of the fighting, an official said.

Earlier Sunday, hundreds of IDF infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza Strip border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said.

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