Hundreds of protesters demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in London on Saturday, waving placards and chanting slogans like "From London to Ramallah organize the intifada".

Speakers on a podium condemned the British government after Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Hamas regime running the Gaza Strip bore "principal responsibility" for the escalation of violence.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Saturday that the bloc should review its peace proposals to Israel and its entire stance on the peace process in response to the conflict in Gaza.

Member states should "reconsider all past Arab initiatives on the peace process and review their stance on the process as a whole," he told an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo called to discuss the conflict.

Rocket attacks fired on Israel by Palestinian militants in Gaza were a "precipitating factor" in the conflict that has engulfed the two sworn enemies, a top U.S. official said Saturday.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said both President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree that de-escalation is preferable, provided that Hamas ceases firing on Israel.

Qatar's prime minister on Saturday delivered a biting criticism of Arab League meetings during emergency talks in Cairo, and called for a review of the pan-Arab body's dealing with the Palestinian issue.

"Our meetings have become a waste of money and a waste of time," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told Arab foreign ministers gathered to draw up a response to Israel's attack on Gaza.

Qatar is to give Egypt $10 million to help treat Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes on the neighboring Gaza Strip, state news agency QNA reported on Saturday.

The oil-rich Gulf nation will also send emergency aid including medical equipment and medicines to Hamas-controlled Gaza, it said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday condemned Israel's airstrikes on Gaza and called for an "immediate stop" to violence against civilians, a statement from his office said.

"President Hamid Karzai strongly condemns the strikes by Israel against the Palestinian territory that have killed and injured a number of innocent civilians," the statement said.

Egypt and Turkey put the onus on Israel on Saturday to end the fighting around Gaza as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Cairo a day after Washington urged the two governments to pressure the Palestinians.

Erdogan, who headed straight into talks with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi after landing in Cairo, blamed Israel for the latest upsurge in violence.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday ordered the dispatch of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeted by Israeli air strikes for a fourth straight day.

The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization was instructed to "send urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza who are facing suffering and difficult living conditions due to Israeli attacks," the royal palace said.

A rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip lightly wounded four Israeli soldiers on Saturday, the army said, with military sources adding they were "inside a building" at the time.

"Three soldiers were wounded by a rocket which hit the Eshkol regional council," a military spokeswoman said, referring to an area along the southern flank of Israel's border with Gaza.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem crossed into Gaza on Saturday for a solidarity visit, a Hamas spokesman said, as Israeli air strikes pounded the Palestinian enclave.

"The Tunisian delegation led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem has arrived in Gaza and is en route to the headquarters of the government destroyed by the occupation this morning, where he will meet with government officials," Interior Ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan told AFP.