EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana deplored the deadly violence at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Thursday in which one of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya's bodyguards was killed and his son and political adviser hurt.

"We hope very much that the situation will get clarified and the Rafah crossing will be open to everybody in the coming hours," he told a press conference during an EU summit in Brussels.

"We deplore the events that are taking place in Rafah," he added.

Hamas gunmen went on the rampage waiting for Haniya to cross back into the strip after being detained by an Israeli closure, an AFP correspondent said.

The gunmen, mostly youths, smashed windows and furniture inside the terminal -- Gaza's only border crossing that bypasses Israel -- while shots were fired into the air and at the building itself.

Israel had closed Rafah earlier Thursday to prevent Haniya from returning to the coastal strip with a reported 35 million dollars in cash.

Haniya returned safely but "the money he was carrying is not across the border, it is now in a bank in Egypt," Solana said.

Five people were injured in the shoot-out, one of them seriously, which occurred as the Palestinian premier left the Gaza border terminal where he had been blocked for several hours, a government source said.

Hamas called the incident an assassination attempt by the Palestinian presidential guard.