A German military aircraft has been dispatched to Beirut to facilitate the departure of staff from the German Embassy, along with their families and personnel from German intermediary organizations.
The Foreign Office and Defence Ministry jointly announced on Monday that “additionally, particularly vulnerable German citizens, primarily those with medical needs, are being transported on the Bundeswehr aircraft.”
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 Foreign Office had raised the crisis levels for German missions in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ramallah in the West Bank over the weekend.
The embassies will remain operational but non-essential staff are to be flown out.
The ministry said that all Germans in Lebanon have been urged to leave since October 2023 when the war in Gaza began. Germans remaining in Lebanon will continue to receive support from the embassy for their departure through commercial flights and other means, it said.
Earlier, the Foreign Office has said 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.
A government spokesman said the Beirut airport was still open, although with drastically restricted flight operations, as well as the airport in Tel Aviv.
