The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) has been busy preparing for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers set to be held next Wednesday following deadly attacks by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 200 Palestinians on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, AL Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters the Arab foreign ministers' meeting will be held either on Sunday or Monday to discuss the situation after Israeli strikes.
Meanwhile, Moussa's spokesman Abdel-Aleem al-Obayyed also told Xinhua later in the day that the Arab foreign ministers' meeting is likely to be held on Sunday evening, also calling for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to adopt a stance on the Israeli raids on Gaza.
But after a meeting of AL permanent delegates in Cairo on Saturday evening, the pan-Arab body decided to hold the foreign ministers' meeting next Wednesday.
During the permanent delegates meeting at the headquarters of the pan-Arab body, the AL representatives discussed preparations for the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers.
They also discussed the possibility of holding an extraordinary Arab summit on the regional situation following Israeli attacks in the Palestinian enclave, diplomatic sources said.
But the date for the Arab summit has not been determined, Moussa told reporters after the Saturday evening meeting.
According to the Egyptian MENA news agency, Moussa had already made a phone call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on the possibility of holding an emergency Arab summit to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.
On Saturday, Israel launched air strikes against the Gaza Strip from 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT), hitting more than 30 targets, most of them security compounds run by the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement.
More than 200 Palestinians were killed and some 750 others wounded in a series of rapid and intensive Israeli air strikes, Palestinian officials said.
Hamas has vowed, after the Israeli strike, to revenge with rocket attacks and suicide bombings.
Just about an hour after the Israeli airstrike, militants in Gaza bombed southern Israeli towns with rockets, killing one Israeli woman.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Saturday evening after the deadly airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled enclave that Israel's operation will take time before bring southern Israel back to quiet.
Egypt, an active Arab mediator between Israel and Hamas, on Saturday strongly condemned the Israeli military actions on the Palestinian enclave and summoned Israeli ambassador in Cairo.
Israel, which has hinted for weeks a possible military operation in Gaza, is responsible for the casualties in the strikes, MENA cited a statement issued by the Egyptian Presidency.
Any military escalation would deteriorate the humanitarian condition in Gaza and have a negative impact on the stability in the Middle East, said the statement.
Egypt has urged Palestinian groups "to adhere to calm and desist from giving Israel an excuse to attack Gaza," it added.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned on Saturday Israel's Ambassador in Cairo Shalom Cohen, voicing Egypt's strong rejection of the Israeli operation and asking for an immediate ceasefire, said MENA.
Egypt also decided on Saturday to open the Rafah crossing at its border with Gaza to receive wounded Palestinians following Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian enclave.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has given directives to receive the wounded Palestinians via Rafah and provide necessary medical treatment for them in Egyptian hospitals, MENA reported.
Egyptian Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali arrived at Al-Arish, capital of Egypt's North Sinai governor ate bordering Gaza, on Saturday to follow up arrangements for receiving wounded Palestinians.
Dozens of injured Gazans have already sent into Egypt for treatments and 200 others are expected to enter Egypt in the coming hours, Egyptian TV reported.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2008)