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Berlin Calls on Iran and Others to Prevent Middle East Escalation 

Israeli security forces and medics transport casualties along with local residents, at a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on July 27, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli security forces and medics transport casualties along with local residents, at a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on July 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Berlin Calls on Iran and Others to Prevent Middle East Escalation 

Israeli security forces and medics transport casualties along with local residents, at a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on July 27, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli security forces and medics transport casualties along with local residents, at a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on July 27, 2024. (AFP)

The German government has called on all parties to the Middle East conflict, in particular Iran, to prevent an escalation after a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers last week, a spokesperson said on Monday.

Berlin "assumes with certainty" that the deadly attack on a football field in the Golan Heights was conducted by Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a regular press conference.

Recent actions by the Yemen-based Houthi militias, also backed by Iran, had also contributed significantly to instability in the region in recent weeks, he added.

The strike over the weekend has raised fears of a wider conflict in the region, where tensions have intensified due to Israel's war in Gaza, which began more than nine months ago.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has talked to several people including her Lebanese counterpart in an effort to "mitigate the situation and prevent it from escalating", the spokesperson said.

German citizens in Lebanon, of which there are estimated to be about 1,300, are "urgently advised" to leave the country while still possible, the spokesperson said.

"We are very concerned about the situation of the Germans on the ground and are preparing what needs to be prepared," he added.

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Arab World

Lebanese Front’s Tunnels Used for Defense, Attack and Launching Missiles

In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
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Lebanese Front’s Tunnels Used for Defense, Attack and Launching Missiles

In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)
In 2019, Israeli forces searched for attack tunnels dug in southern Lebanon that extend into Israel (Israeli Ministry of Defense)

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group faces Israeli air superiority and technological capabilities by going underground. The group has built a massive and complex network of tunnels in the South, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Bekaa regions.
The ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the southern Lebanese border, which erupted in October, has brought back the spotlight on these tunnels, which have been shown to be divided into 3 types.
The first are defensive tunnels that allow the party’s fighters to take shelter from aircraft raids. The second are offensive tunnels that the Israeli army said it destroyed in 2019, and the third group consists of small tunnels to hide rocket launchers and which appeared in one of the video clips broadcast by Hezbollah’s military media last month.
According to Israeli reports, Hezbollah started digging tunnels in the 1980s and 1990s, but those remained far from the border with Israel. However, in 2006, the Israeli media showed a tunnel that the Israeli army discovered during the July war inside Lebanese territory, and quoted officials as saying that the party’s construction of cross-border tunnels began before the start of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Concerned about tunnels extending into Israeli territory, Israeli authorities launched a campaign in 2018 to destroy this infrastructure, and announced in 2019, the end of its operation to raze all of Hezbollah’s cross-border attack tunnels.
The last tunnel that Israel destroyed stretched along 800 meters. The Israeli army said the tunnel extended over dozens of meters into Israel, and was dug to a depth of 55 meters, making it the deepest tunnel discovered by the army. The tunnel was equipped with electricity, had a railway to transport equipment and waste, exit stairs and other elements that made it more advanced than other passageways that were uncovered.
In 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the participation of the Israeli army, organized a field tour for 12 diplomats from UN Security Council member states, to show them the tunnel on the northern border with Lebanon.
Since the eruption of war on Oct. 8, Lebanese sources have confirmed that the Israeli army used bunker-piercing bombs to destroy tunnels suspected of being built by the party in the border area.
A report issued by the Alma-Israel Research Center said that after the 2006 Lebanon War, the party established a defensive plan to confront any possible Israeli invasion, with dozens of operations centers equipped with local underground networks and tunnels.
In addition to the previous two types of tunnels, Hezbollah media revealed a third category. Last month, the party’s media presented a report on the party’s artillery and weapons, and one of the clips showed a rocket launcher rising from the ground and launching a missile, indicating that the party hides these platforms underground.