A surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas against Israel risks provoking a “major regional escalation”, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Saturday, adding that “other” actors in the Middle East could join the hostilities.
“This terrorism by Hamas once again moves the region farther from peace,” Baerbock said in a statement.
She added that the violence showed “once again” that “only a political solution can permit Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and dignity”.
The German government is also “strongly advising” against travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories, she said, urging Germans in the region to register with the foreign ministry.
German flag carrier Lufthansa also said it was cutting flights to Israel following the wave of Palestinian attacks, a spokesman told AFP.
“Given the current security situation in Tel Aviv,” Lufthansa will maintain a single flight to Frankfurt but “all other Lufthansa flights to and from Tel Aviv have been cancelled for this Saturday”.
The German government also said it had bolstered security at synagogues and other Jewish sites in the country in case of a flare-up of violence in the wake of the Hamas attacks, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Bild newspaper.
