Egypt started taking in a trickle of wounded Palestinians from the Gaza Strip yesterday. An Egyptian official said 32 Gazans were taken to hospitals in Egypt as the Israeli assault on the coastal area continued for the third day.

Around mid-afternoon, ambulances ferried the wounded from Gaza toward the crossing in the border town of Rafah, where over a dozen Egyptian ambulances waited to take over the casualties.

A wounded Palestinian, who lay wrapped in a blanket on a stretcher, was seen being carried from an ambulance that arrived from Gaza into an Egyptian one.

An Egyptian paramedic, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media, said he was told Egypt would take about 20 to 30 Palestinian casualties to the hospital in the Sinai town of El-Arish.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded since Israel launched an air assault Saturday on the coastal area to root out the militant Hamas.

The Palestinian health minister from the West Bank, Fathi Aboul Mughli, visited the terminal and praised Egyptian, Saudi and Libyan offers to aid the Gazans. "This is an emergency, the situation is so very difficult," he said.

"I've never seen such an attack," he said of the Israeli offensive, adding that there were about 150 cases in the Gaza hospital's intensive care unit who need to be transported.

By yesterday nightfall, Tariq al-Mahlawi, Egypt's deputy health minister, said Egypt had taken in 32 cases. Most of the wounded were brought to the El-Arish hospital in Egypt's Sinai peninsula where 500 beds were readied to treat the Palestinians. Some of the more serious cases were transported to Cairo, al-Mahlawi said.

Earlier yesterday, Egypt allowed trucks with food and medical supplies to pass through the crossing. At least nine trucks loaded with food and medical supplies were seen lined up about 200 meters from the terminal and guards allowed several trucks to enter at a time.