FRANKFURT: Germany on Saturday said there was an “urgent need” for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza threatened to spread to Lebanon.
Attacks carried out by Israel or blamed on the country, including air strikes and the explosions of hand-held communications devices, have killed dozens and injured thousands in Lebanon since Tuesday.
The country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia and Israel have also intensified cross-border fire that has raged since the Gaza war broke out on October 7 last year.
“We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims,” the German foreign ministry wrote on X.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been in contact with her Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to discuss the next steps, it added.
The German federal government said it was “deeply concerned” by the recent escalation in the region but added that it was not “inevitable.”
“A diplomatic solution to the conflict must be possible,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office warned that a regional conflagration would “have terrible and lasting consequences for the populations of the whole region,” resulting in “catastrophic” destruction.
Germany says ‘urgent need’ for measures in Mideast
https://arab.news/bjmtn
Germany says ‘urgent need’ for measures in Mideast
- “We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims,” the German foreign ministry wrote on X
Israeli strike kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza, health officials say, the latest deaths as truce stalls
Israeli strike kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza, health officials say, the latest deaths as truce stalls
- Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect on Oct. 10
- The military said the person they killed was a militant and had posed a threat to troops
GAZA CITY: An Israeli strike on Thursday killed at least two Palestinians and wounded five others east of Gaza City, according to Fadel Naeem, director of Al-Ahli Hospital, where the casualties arrived.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect on Oct. 10. The escalating Palestinian toll has prompted many in Gaza to say it feels like the war has continued unabated.
Separately, Israel’s military said Thursday that soldiers in southern Gaza had killed a Palestinian who had crossed the line dividing the Israeli-held area of the strip from the area most Palestinians are crammed into. Such shootings have become a common occurrence in the territory since the ceasefire took hold.
The military said the person they killed was a militant and had posed a threat to troops. It maintains that claim when describing most cases of Palestinians shot down in the vicinity of the line, even though some civilians have been killed, including young children, said a military official who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity in line with military rules.
