FRANCE 24 with wires - Lebanon's cabinet said on Tuesday it would donate one million dollars in emergency humanitarian assistance to Palestinians affected by the Israeli aerial blitz on the Gaza Strip.

"The cabinet has decided to provide one million US dollars in immediate assistance to aid the injured and afflicted in Gaza," Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

The government would also launch a drive to raise funds for Gaza relief efforts. National flags will fly at half mast on Thursday as a symbol of mourning.

Mitri said the government stressed the "necessity of lifting the blockade against Gaza and ensuring access of medical and humanitarian assistance to the wounded."

Iraq will send a planeload of food and medicine to the Gaza Strip, which has been hit by a wave of deadly Israeli air strikes, the government said on Tuesday.

"The government is preparing medical and food items to be sent by air to the people of Gaza affected by the Israeli aggression, to be distributed by the Palestinian Authority," said spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

The Iraqi government on Saturday condemned the deadly Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, saying they left behind "many victims -- innocent people and children."

The news came as Israel bombed Gaza for a fourth day on Tuesday. A medical official in the coastal strip said at least 368 Palestinians, including more than 50 civilians, had been killed in the raids.

Since Saturday, militants from Gaza have fired more than 250 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel, killing four people and wounding two dozen more.

Lebanon's cabinet on Tuesday also called for "Arab and Palestinian unity" in facing the assault.

Mitri said the cabinet called for the "speeding up convening the emergency Arab summit to take the required measures to counter this aggression, to stop the bloodshed and to push the international community to live up to its responsibilities."

Foreign ministers from the Arab League are due to meet on Wednesday in Cairo, where the 22-member pan-Arab grouping is based, to discuss the Gaza onslaught.

An Arab summit due to take place in Qatar on Friday is in doubt because some countries such as Egypt are not in favour of it, Arab diplomatic sources have said.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday called for an immediate halt to hostilities in Gaza and urged Israel to ensure that medical supplies are channelled to those hit by the military action.

"Civilians are paying the price for the prolonged blockade. As a top priority, the shortages of essential and life-saving medicines need to be abated without delay," said the WHO in a statement.

"The inability of the hospitals to cope with a problem of this magnitude, if the situation continues unchanged, will result in a surge in preventable deaths from complications due to trauma," warned the WHO.

Negotiations were ongoing with the Israelis to funnel medical supplies through, the WHO added as it urged an end to the conflict.

"WHO reiterates its call for the immediate discontinuation of the current violence and the removal of blockades so that much-needed food, water, fuel, medicines and other humanitarian aid can reach those in need," it said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in a statement that it was "extremely concerned about civilians" caught up in the hostilities.

"We have nowhere to hide," it cited a staff member who lives in Gaza as saying.

"We gather the children in the living room and sleep there on mattresses. We have to leave the windows open so that the glass won't break when bombs hit nearby."

An ICRC spokesman told AFP that a flight carrying 10 tonnes of medical aid supplies would depart from Geneva on Tuesday.

Six trucks were sent into Gaza earlier Tuesday carrying medication, spare parts for ambulances and for medical equipment, said the ICRC.

A surgical team was also expected to arrive "in the coming days."

Israel has so far shunned world appeals for a truce, as it massed forces on the Gaza border Tuesday and warned that its deadly assault on Hamas could last for weeks.