Governments Warn Citizens to Stay Clear of Lebanon

Foreigners were advised to evacuate Lebanon and suspend all travel to the country as Israeli forces pounded suspected Hezbollah strongholds there for the fourth day, raising fears of full-scale war.

France, Germany, Greece, the Philippines, Spain and the United States were among those which issued warnings to their citizens either living in the conflict zone or planning trips there amid the escalating violence.

Newspaper: German-Lebanese family killed

A German newspaper reported in its Saturday edition that three members of a German-Lebanese family were killed and one wounded in the Israeli offensive on Lebanon.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted Raef Khachab, a businessman from Munich, as saying his 43-year-old cousin, his pregnant wife and their teenage daughter died in an Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning when rockets struck the home of relatives they were visiting.

Khachab said the family's 11-year-old son was injured in the attack on Shour, a village near the main coastal city of Tyre, and had been hospitalized. He said his cousin was a naturalized German citizen who settled in the country 25 years ago. The family lived in Mönchengladbach in western Germany.

According to Lebanese police, five civilians were killed in

Shour on Thursday morning when Israeli planes bombed villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jäger on Friday said the government was trying to verify the information.

"There are indications that a German-Lebanese family could be among the victims. The embassy in Beirut is in close contact with Lebanese officials and we are trying to establish the facts."

Governments issue travel warnings

With no sign of a lull in the attacks, the German foreign ministry warned citizens not to travel to Lebanon, the Palestinian territories or any of Israel's border regions, saying "the situation is very insecure."

There are about 1,100 Germans living in Lebanon, according to the ministry. About half of them hold dual nationality.

The foreign ministry said it considered the area between the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon and the Syrian border to be the most dangerous.

It advised Germans living in Lebanon to stay at home, but said those who lived close to airports, power plants, main roads or southern Beirut, considered a Hezbollah stronghold, should move somewhere safer.

German travel agencies have also cancelled planned trips to both Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli strikes have delivered a major blow to Lebanon's tourism industry.

Many other foreign tourists -- mostly Jordanians, Syrians and Iranians -- also fled to Syria through the borders. Arabs are the main source of tourism in Lebanon, which had been looking forward to a record season of about 1.6 million tourists to help bring in cash flow to a country still suffering from the
devastation of the 1975-1990 civil war.

"The losses are massive. It's too early to give numbers but
everything is pointing to very serious losses," Tourism Minister Joseph Sarkis told Reuters. "It was shaping up to be a very good summer season ... Unfortunately, the season has been hit."

Over 60 civilians have been killed since Israel launched a bitter offensive on its northern neighbor on Wednesday after Hezbollah militia captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.

Israeli attacks have left Lebanon virtually cut off from the

outside world, targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut, the country's only international airport as well as bridges and roads across the south of the country.

"Keep a low profile"

The US State Department warned Americans against traveling to Lebanon, authorized embassy personnel and their families to evacuate and advised other US citizens there to "keep a low profile."

The State Department estimates that about 25,000 US citizens, including people with dual citizenship, live in Lebanon, although summer visits could expand that community.

Greece and Spain too have said they were evacuating their nationals from Lebanon. The French government said it was preparing to evacuate its embassy in Lebanon and recommended citizens to avoid all travel to the country. A special hotline has been set up for people with relatives in Lebanon, it said.

Lebanon is a former French colony and many French citizens have business and family ties with the country. Up to 5,000 French tourists are believed to be in Lebanon in addition to about 17,000 French residents who are registered with the consular service there.

Tensions in Germany over events

As Israeli planes blasted roads and bridges in south, east and north Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Hezbollah's chief declared open war on Israel for a blitz launched in reprisal for the capture of two Israeli soldiers, international condemnation intensified.

The European Union still remains divided on the issue, with members such as France and Finland slamming the Israeli reaction as "completely disproportionate."

The Israeli offensive in Lebanon has also led to political tensions within Germany. Members of the country's Central Council of Jews have accused German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of "apparently using double standards."

Steinmeier had earlier said that he understood that every country had the right to defend itself if attacked. At the same time he said that Israel had to show a measured response to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah.

Steinmeier later told ZDF television that Israel's targeting of Lebanese infrastructure was not a "necessary reaction."

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned against one-sided condemnations of Israel.

"It would help some politicians if they tried to imagine how it would be if Germany was under daily rocket attack," she said.