Rafah
© AFPPalestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in the town of Rafah
Egypt condemned Israel's Saturday air raids on Gaza that killed at least 155 Palestinians, opening its Rafah border crossing with the territory to allow the wounded through for medical treatment.

"Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded," President Hosni Mubarak said in a statement.

He gave instructions for the Rafah terminal -- the only one bypassing Israel -- to be opened so that the wounded could be treated in Egyptian hospitals.

State news agency Mena said the crossing had been opened and that by mid-afternoon dozens of wounded had already passed through.

Public television said around 200 people -- the vast majority of the estimated more than 200 hurt -- would be arriving at the hospital in Rafah, Egypt in the coming hours.

Abdel Fadil Shusha, governor of North Sinai province which adjoins Gaza, said he has sent six ambulances to the Rafah crossing point.

Amr Mussa, secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League, called an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers "to discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip."

The meeting would take place in the coming hours, Mussa said in a statement. Earlier, Jordan had called for the gathering to be held on Sunday.

He also asked Libya, as a member of the United National Security Council, to organise an emergency meeting on the subject of the Israeli raids.

Egypt has reinforced security on its frontier with Gaza by deploying 500 anti-riot police, a security official told AFP.

On Friday, Egypt had already stepped up border security in case Gazans broke through the boundary fence and entered Egypt in their thousands, as happened in January when activists opened breaches with explosives.

Egypt mediated a six-months truce between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement which controls the Gaza strip.

Since the truce expired on December 19, Egypt has been trying to broker its renewal and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Cairo for talks on Thursday.

While in Egypt, Livni vowed to strike back at Hamas as a sharp escalation of violence in Gaza dashed hopes of a new truce.

The spiritual guide of Egypt's Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, condemned Saturday's raids as "a crime without comparison in history," adding that "the world looks on and does nothing."

"I also blame Egypt," said Mohammed Mehdi Akef. "Tzipi Livni was in Cairo and she announced exactly what was going to happen."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit had said on Thursday that the government was preparing to invite Hamas and its secular rival Fatah, which rules the West Bank, to Cairo to resume dialogue.

He called on Israel and Hamas to support the initiative by showing restraint, Gheit said.

Hamas boycotted reconciliation talks that were due to take place in Cairo in November, to protest the "political detentions" of some of its members in the West Bank by Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.