Riyadh  - Saudi Arabian King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz called on Thursday for an urgent national aid campaign for the people in Gaza, Saudi news agency reported.

Since the start of Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Saturday, some 400 people have died and more than 2,100 have been injured.

King Abdullah said that the aid campaign will be supervised by Saudi Minister of Interior Naif bin Abdul-Aziz.

Saudi Arabia has sent aid planes with medicine to Gaza. It also allocated special planes to evacuate the injured from Gaza to Saudi hospitals for treatment.

Saudi Arabia and other US allied Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan have come under fire in the Arab world for not doing enough to help Gaza.

Many of those countries are uncomfortable with Hamas the militant group which took over Gaza after fighting with rival Palestinian organisation Fatah in 2007. (dpa)