German FM to visit Beirut to discuss 'extremely volatile situation'
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Israel Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, a ministry spokesman said.
Baerbock will hold talks with Israel's new Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as well as President Isaac Herzog, foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told a regular press conference on Friday.
She will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.
Baerbock will subsequently travel to Egypt to meet with her counterpart Sameh Shoukry and also planned to visit Lebanon.
The talks would focus on the "dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the extremely volatile situation on the Israel-Lebanon border," as well as efforts to secure the release of more Hamas hostages, Fischer said.
Fears have grown that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spread, after one of the militant group's leaders was assassinated in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
In addition to the killing, widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, the Israeli army has for months traded tit-for-tat fire across the border with Hezbollah.
The risk of escalation was "very real," Fischer said. Germany on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.
Source: Agence France Presse
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