DUBAI (REUTERS) - Iran's Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani urged Arab states on Wednesday to follow Iran's example of providing military assistance to the Palestinians.

Israel continued air strikes on the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday with the goal of deterring Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the territory, from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

Iran regards the Israeli strikes as "organised terrorism".

"We are honoured that our help has material and military aspects, and these Arab countries that sit and hold meetings should know that the nation of Palestine does not need words or meetings," Fars news agency reported Mr Larijani as saying.

"Our message is that if Arab countries want to help the nation of Palestine they should give military assistance."

Iranian officials have refused to comment on allegations that Teheran had supplied Hamas with Fajr-5 rockets that the group has fired on Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre.

In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, an explosion hit a public bus, wounding at least 10 people, Israel's ambulance service reported.

"A bomb exploded on a bus in central Tel Aviv. This was a terrorist attack. Most of the injured suffered only mild injuries," said Mr Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Television showed pictures of a smoke-filled bus, with its windows broken.

The attack happened on the eighth day of an Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, which it launched with the stated aim of preventing rocket strikes from the Palestinian enclave.

Celebratory gunfire rang out in Gaza City when local radio stations reported news of the Tel Aviv explosion.

The last time Israel's commercial capital was hit by a serious bomb blast was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people at a sandwich stand near the city's old central bus station.