Tel Aviv - Israel Thursday opened the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists and aid workers, after preventing them from entering the salient for four weeks.

A Palestinian official said Israel also opened a cargo crossing into the Strip to allow delivery of limited amounts of vital aid.

"The Israeli side told us that Kerem Shalom crossing would open Thursday for 40 trucks with food, aid and medical supplies," Nasser al-Sarraj, a Palestinian ministry of economy official, said.

Israel banned foreign journalists from entering the Strip as a fragile truce with Palestinian militants began falling apart.

It said the denial of access was part of a policy to allow only essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza so long as rocket attacks from the strip by Palestinian militants continue.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel, which represents foreign correspondents working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, vehemently protested the Israeli ban, submitting a petition to Israel's supreme court.

In addition, the editors in chief, presidents and directors of major news outlets such as ABC news, the BBC, CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters and the New York Times sent a letter to caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, urging Israel to restore "immediately" access to Gaza for foreign reporters. (dpa)