Egypt on Saturday reopened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years, in a move hailed by Hamas but criticized by Israel.

Among the first to cross the reopened border post were two ambulances ferrying patients from the hitherto-blockaded Gaza Strip for treatment in Egypt as well as a minibus carrying a dozen visitors, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Egypt will open the Rafah border crossing on a daily basis starting this weekend in a bid to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Palestinians will now be able to travel through Rafah -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel -- under entry rules in place before the blockade was tightened in 2007.

The White House said Monday it regretted the loss of life on the Lebanese-Israeli border and urged "maximum restraint" among all parties but said the U.S. ally has the right to thwart unauthorized crossings.

"We regret the loss of life and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those killed and wounded," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard President Barack Obama's official Air Force One airplane.

Israeli gunfire killed three people and wounded hundreds Sunday as Palestinians marched on Israel's borders with Syria and Gaza in a mass show of mourning over the creation of the Jewish state.

Tensions along the Israeli-Syrian frontier spiraled as thousands of protesters from Syria tried to force their way into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, prompting the army to open fire in one of the worst incidents of violence there since a 1974 truce accord.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal buried the hatchet at a Cairo reconciliation ceremony on Wednesday that ends a nearly four-year feud but has angered Israel.

Palestinians gathered in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip to celebrate the long-awaited agreement to put an end to the rivalry between the administrations in the West Bank and Gaza, and restore the unity shattered by deadly infighting in June 2007.

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and an orchestra of prestigious European musicians on Tuesday played an historic concert in Gaza, drawing rapturous applause as they performed in a show of solidarity and peace.

It was the first time such a large group of celebrated classical musicians had played in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which has been largely sealed off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade for nearly five years.

A Palestinian man convicted of collaboration with Israel was executed in Gaza on Wednesday on the orders of the interior ministry, the Hamas-affiliated Shahab news agency said.

The name of the Palestinian and the specific accusations against him were not detailed.

Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the Islamist Hamas movement in power in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday he was "ready to resign."

"I am prepared to tender my resignation as part of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah," the secular party of Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas.

Israel is "very concerned" about the implications of Egypt's plans to permanently reopen its border with Gaza, a senior official said Friday, warning it could impact on Israel's security, Agence France Presse reported.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi told Al-Jazeera that the crossing would be permanently opened in coming days as part of Cairo's plans to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas government said Saturday it has arrested two more suspects in connection with the murder of an Italian activist, hanged hours after his abduction.

The interior ministry "managed to arrest two suspects" in the murder on Friday of pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, in addition to two other suspects previously taken into custody, a statement said.