Germany Denies Backing Israel To Attack Hezbollah In Lebanon

The German government has denied media reports that it is collaborating with Israeli forces in the ongoing conflict in Lebanon.

The German Press Agency, DPA, reports that sources linked to the Lebanese Shite militia, Hezbollah, are accusing Germany of deploying its forces in the country as UN peacekeepers while working with Israel.

“Media in Lebanon close to Hezbollah are spreading the narrative that Germany and the German-led United Nations Maritime Task Force intervened in the fighting in Lebanon in favour of Israel,” the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

“The German government firmly rejects these accusations.”

Germany has continued to provide humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, especially to refugees in the country.

Development Minister Svenja Schulze during a visit to Beirut on November 4, committed an additional 60 million euros to provide basic services for hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced within the country or who have fled to neighbouring Syria as a result of the conflict.

Germany is also providing over 100 soldiers for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), especially the Maritime Task Force, which is caught up in the fighting between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Iran-allied Hezbollah, and whose objective is to prevent arms smuggling by sea and to enable the Lebanese armed forces to monitor the country’s sea border on their own.

In early November, the Israeli special forces captured a man in the Lebanese beach town of Batrun, reportedly using speedboats. Lebanese security sources revealed that the man was involved in Hezbollah arms smuggling between Lebanon and Syria.

UNIFIL subsequently denied involvement in any abduction or “other violations of Lebanese sovereignty.”

It added that “disinformation and false rumours in this context are irresponsible and endanger the peacekeeping forces.”

Meanwhile, when German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Beirut in October, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar attacked her Middle East policy and wrote that Baerbock was repeating “the Israeli-Western narrative” and “speaking for the enemy.”

The German Defence Ministry said on Thursday that there is “no direct contact between the Maritime Task Force and the Israeli military. Situation information is not passed on.”