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 The explosion, which could be heard miles away, came as a Gaza's Hamas rulers reported that the latest Egyptian efforts to pry a truce from Israel and Gaza militants had failed.
Two militant Palestinian factions -- Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
-- claimed responsibility for the attack, which ripped an 80-yard hole in a wall surrounding the crossing.
Ibrahim Nasser, a 23-year-old Islamic Jihad militant, drove the truck filled with at least four tons of explosives into the crossing in northern Gaza, spokesmen for the militant groups said.
The groups later released a video of a man they said was the bomber. It showed a young bearded man in uniform, smiling as he brandished a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman who called himself Abu Ahmad described the attack as a "successful martyrdom operation" that was meant to "send a message" to Israel that if it doesn't accept a truce "Gaza is not going to be a place where you will enjoy stability."
The truck exploded on the Gaza side of the border, blowing a hole in a pedestrian passageway leading out of the terminal and into Gaza. No pedestrians were at the crossing at the time because it was early, and the Israeli military said no soldiers were wounded. The explosion shattered windows in Netiv Haasara, an Israeli community across the border.
Abu Thaer, a spokesman for Al Aqsa, said three other fighters on the mission were following in a jeep, and planned to enter the crossing after the explosion to spray the area with gunfire. But there was heavy fog in the morning and their jeep ran into a mound of sand and overturned, he said. They fled unharmed, he said.
The Israeli military said it fired a missile at a nearby jeep that it said was carrying militants shortly after the explosion.
The attack on Erez came as a Hamas delegation was returning to Gaza from Egypt after holding cease-fire talks. Hamas officials said the round of talks failed and blamed Israel for not accepting a proposed six-month truce. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the group had yet to make an official statement.
Israel claims that Hamas would only use a lull in fighting to rearm, strengthen its rule and prepare for another round of fighting, and Hamas officials acknowledge that is one of their goals.
Israel's army regularly clashes with Gaza gunmen who fire rockets at Israeli towns and attack troops along the border. The crossings, which militants see as hated symbols of Israeli authority, are frequent targets.
Since June 2007, when Hamas came to power, Israel and Egypt have kept the Gaza crossings closed to everything but humanitarian aid in an attempt to weaken the group. The sanctions have been tightened in response to the ongoing rocket fire.
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 The Erez crossing will be closed until the damage can be repaired, said Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner. Erez is the main crossing point for international aid workers and Palestinians traveling to Israel for medical treatment, he said, and thus "the main victims of this attack are the Palestinians themselves."
Israeli government spokesman David Baker accused Hamas of "cynically attacking crossing points used for Palestinian humanitarian needs."
But a U.N. official warned Israel not to let such attacks halt the flow of goods into Gaza.
"If you hand the agenda over to the extremists, then they are very happy about it. If it only takes one rocket to derail everything, then that's massive power," said John Ging, the Gaza director of the U.N. organization in charge of Palestinian refugees.
In a separate incident Thursday morning, a 62-year-old Palestinian civilian was shot and killed in central Gaza, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry. The military said it had no forces nearby, and the circumstances of the man's death remained unclear.
At another crossing 5 miles away, thousands of Gaza protesters demanded an end to the Israeli blockade.
"You will fall, your corrupt state will fall!" the crowd chanted at the Karni cargo crossing. Some of the protesters climbed poles to hoist Hamas flags, and pro-Hamas songs played in the background.
Gunshots pierced the air and Israeli troops fired tear gas to keep the protesters at bay. Israeli tanks rumbled in the distance on the Israeli side of the passage.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military says border guards fatally shot a man who sneaked across its desert frontier with Egypt overnight. The military did not give an exact location of where the shooting occurred.
African migrants and Palestinian militants often try to slip across Israel's porous border with Egypt.
[Associated
Press; By IBRAHIM BARZAK]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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