CAIRO -- Foreign ministers or representatives of the 22 member states of the Arab League (AL) began their emergent meeting here on Saturday on the escalating violence in the Middle East.

About 16 Arab nations sent their foreign ministers to the meeting while six others dispatched their representatives.

Palestinian Foreign Minister and senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar was not present, replaced by Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Political Department Farouk Qaddoumi.

The ministers and representatives discussed in a closed session chaired by AL Secretary-General Amr Moussa and State Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Hussein al-Shaali.

The meeting was hastily called by the AL to discuss Israeli military escalation in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

The attendees also included a three-man team sent by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, namely, Annan's special political advisor Vijay Nambiar, UN envoy to Middle East Alvaro de Soto and special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

The meeting started as Israeli air force continued its bombing in Lebanon.

Tensions in the Middle East have been dramatically heightened since Israel started a military offensive against Lebanon on Wednesday and pressed ahead with a massive air and ground operation on the Gaza Strip more than two weeks ago.

Dozens of Lebanese have been killed and more than 100 injured in Israeli attacks launched in the wake of a cross-border attack by Lebanese Hezbollah militants Wednesday morning, during which two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight others killed.

While in the Gaza Strip, Israel stepped up a military operation in a bid to rescue a kidnapped soldier and halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

Both Hezbollah and Palestinian militants demanded that Israel release prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the captive Israeli soldiers, but Israel rejected the swap idea.