(Updates background in final paragraph)

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Feb 2 (Reuters) - While thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt to stock up on food, fuel and other staples after Islamist militants breached the border, one man bought a lion cub and a monkey to smuggle back home.

The man managed to reach Cairo and buy the animals despite a heavy security cordon, but police caught him at a checkpoint as he tried to sneak them back into Gaza in a small truck carrying furniture, security officials told Reuters on Saturday. They said the man, whom they did not identify, confessed to wanting to sell the cub and monkey in Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, blew holes in the border wall in Egypt on Jan. 23 in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.

The group agreed on Saturday to Egyptian calls to control the flow of Palestinians through the border and said it expected Cairo to seal the remaining gaps in the frontier wall.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Alaa Shahine; Editing by Michael Winfrey)

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