Egypt on Monday evening allowed a European aid-laden convoy to cross into the blockaded Gaza Strip which is ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, officials in Gaza said.

The European aid convoy called "Hope" which included 39 European activists and 40 wagons of humanitarian aids of food and medicine to the Gaza Strip population arrived at Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Sunday.

Arafat Madi, chief of the European Campaign to defy Gaza blockade, told reporters that the Egyptian authorities initially refused to let the 39 activists to cross into the Gaza Strip, but "finally Egypt allowed 20 of them to cross."

"Following intensive negotiations between the organizers of the aid convoy and the Egyptians, Egypt denied the entrance of 19 activists and only let 20 of them to cross into the Gaza Strip with the 40 aid-laden wagons and trucks," he said.

Israel has been imposing a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since June 2007, after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave and routed Western-supported President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces.

Since then, Israel and Egypt have only opened their border crossings with the Gaza Strip for humanitarian aids, fuels and medicine. Egypt, from time to time, opened its borders for Palestinians to receive medical treatment in Egypt.

The participants in the convoy condemned Egypt's decision to bar the entrance of the 19 activists. The convoy arrived at the Egyptian seaport of Said on Friday and then it drove to Rafah crossing.

"It took the activists almost two months to prepare the convoy and the trucks. It contains 40 trucks and 12 ambulances equipped with all needed medical equipment," said Madi.

The aid-laden wagons, cars and ambulances convoy, which is headed by Italian member of parliament Fernando Rossi, also comprise 12 other parliamentarians from Italy, Greece, Ireland, Switzerland and Britain, in addition to other European activists.

The Hope aid convoy is the second that reaches Gaza since the end of Israel's 22-day military offensive on the Gaza Strip which ended on January 18.

The first aid convoy with vehicles, ambulances and trucks, which was led by British member of Common House George Galloway, arrived in the Gaza Strip two weeks after the end of the Israeli offensive.