OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/CAIRO, 10 March — Violence continued unabated in the Middle East yesterday with Israeli Army assaults on Palestinian areas and Palestinian retaliation. Twelve Israelis and eight Palestinians were killed.

In Cairo, Arab foreign ministers opened a meeting with calls on the international community to intervene to halt Israeli attacks on Palestinians after some of the bloodiest fighting in 17 months of violence.

A Palestinian walked into a cafe in Jerusalem and blew himself up, killing 12 people and wounding 54, medics at the scene said.

They said several people among the wounded had been seriously hurt. The death toll of 12 included the Palestinian bomber.

In the coastal town of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, three Palestinians opened fire near a hotel killing one and wounding more than 30 people. All the three were shot dead by Israeli troops. Israeli police said the men also threw hand grenades during the 15-minute shooting spree close to the seafront in the western part of the city.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said the European Union and the United States had agreed to make a joint appeal to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt military action. But that seems to have had little effect on Sharon. The Israeli Army mounted fresh raids on refugee camps in Bethlehem and Israeli aircraft fired at least five missiles at targets around the complex housing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Gaza City.

Four other Palestinians died in different circumstances. They included an 18-year-old Palestinian woman, Rana Hamad, from the village of Qur to the east of Qalqilya, who died after complications following a miscarriage after being held up for an hour at the main army checkpoint at the eastern entrance to Qalqilya.

Israel arrested 600 Palestinians. Palestinian sources, however, put the figure at around 1,000.

In Cairo, the Arab ministers said there was broad support for Crown Prince Abdullah to present a peace initiative at an Arab summit later this month in Beirut which proposes exchanging Arab occupied land for normal Arab ties with Israel.

“There was a broad consensus on the ideas presented by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard and we agreed that the crown prince present the initiative at the Arab summit,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Marwan Al-Muasher said after a closed session at the two-day meeting. Muasher called the Saudi proposal a “political frame for a comprehensive solution,” adding it had gained wide approval.

In his opening address, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Arabs would not remain idle after Israel launched some of the fiercest attacks since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000.

“Israel’s negative responses to peace initiatives so far show the depth of the Israeli policy of aggression and that it has become a permanent strategy in the face of which we have no choice but to take necessary steps to protect Arab national security,” former Egyptian Foreign Minister Moussa said.

Kuwait’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Muhammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah told ministers the Palestinian people “are still longing to have the international community stand at their side and protect them from the brutal Israeli tyranny”.

The meeting opened a day after Israel mounted a fierce wave of air, land and sea assaults on the West Bank and Gaza in which 38 Palestinians were killed.

“The massacres, which the Israeli Army has carried out in the occupied Palestinian lands, proved predetermined Israeli intentions against the Palestinian people,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told reporters.

Prince Saud said his country’s initiative was a “touchstone” that tests Israel’s will for peace. Arabs have chosen peace, he said, asking, “Why cannot there be an Israeli stance abiding by the same?”

Before the meeting opened, Muasher said 10 Arab ministers in the so-called follow-up committee reviewed the Kingdom’s proposal. The Saudi plan has won the support of heavyweight Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The European Union and the United States have given their backing. Yesterday, Malaysia welcomed the proposal. “Crown Prince Abdullah has made a move and Malaysia will support that type of move. It’s a window, a chance for peace in the Middle East,” said Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar in Kuala Lumpur.