The German Foreign Office said on Monday it estimates that some 1,800 German nationals are currently in Lebanon as the country faces a massive escalation in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that about 1,800 people have registered on the ministry’s crisis preparedness list ELEFAND.
The system enables Germans abroad to be quickly informed by German representatives in acute situations and included in possible crisis measures such as evacuations.
Following almost a year of cross-border skirmishes, Israel launched a large-scale aerial campaign on targets across Lebanon last week.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in Lebanon amid the fighting, according to Lebanese authorities.
The international community is urging de-escalation amidst continued Israeli strikes and Hezbollah retaliations, but efforts for a ceasefire have so far been rejected by both sides.
The German government’s crisis team assessed the situation in Lebanon on Friday and Saturday, the spokesman said.
He said the Beirut airport was still open, although with drastically restricted flight operations, as well as the airport in Tel Aviv.
The ministry is assisting German nationals to leave the country, although he added that “we are not explicitly in an evacuation scenario.”
The Foreign Office has raised the crisis levels for German missions in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ramallah in the West Bank.
This means that family members of the deployed staff will gradually be evacuated and the number of personnel will be reduced, he said.
