DOHA
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has ordered 200 million Saudi riyal (roughly $53.3 million) for the Palestinian Red Crescent in the Gaza Strip.
"The sum will be dedicated to secure urgently needed medicine, medical supplies and equipment to treat the victims of the Israeli aggression on Gaza," Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Assaf told the Saudi press agency late Sunday.
At least 172 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since late Monday.
Some 1183 people have also been wounded in the Israeli aerial attacks.
Israel has launched a military operation – dubbed Operation Protective Edge - with the stated goal of ending rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have staged hundreds of airstrikes on the besieged enclave – home to around 1.8 million Palestinians - while ground troops remain amassed on the borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
By Ahmed al-Masri
www.aa.com.tr/en
