Israeli Warplanes In 'incident' With German Ship Off Lebanon: Military

[FighterFromAfar]

Israeli warplanes in 'incident' with German ship off Lebanon: military
Oct 25 3:00 PM US/Eastern

Quote:Two Israeli warplanes were involved in an armed incident with a German ship patrolling Lebanon's waters as part of the UN force in the Arab country, the German military told AFP.

A spokesman for the command of the German mission in Lebanon said it was investigating the incident which took place on Monday.

According to Thursday's edition of the Tagesspiegel newspaper, two Israeli F-16 warplanes fired shots as well as anti-missile defence flares while flying low over the German vessel.

The newspaper said the incident had been reported to parliament on Wednesday by a state secretary in the defence ministry, Christian Schmidt.

In Israel, Defence Minister Amir Peretz denied his country's planes had opened fire near a German ship, in a telephone call with German counterpart Franz Josep Jung.

"No Israeli plane opened fire at a German ship and Israel has no intention of attacking the German forces," Peretz said, according to his spokesman.

The defence minister also proposed closer cooperation between the Israeli military and the German naval force to Jung, whom he is due to meet in Israel next week.

France and the United Nations this week warned Israel that it was endangering the multinational peace mission in Lebanon by sending its fighter planes into Lebanese airspace.

Police in Lebanon have claimed that there were more Israeli flights over their country on Monday than on any other day since the end of the Jewish state's 34-day war with Hezbollah.

Peretz said at the weekend that the flights through Lebanese airspace would continue because of alleged arms smuggling to Hezbollah since the end of the war on August 14.

Germany is heading the naval component of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon but has refused to contribute ground troops in a bid to avoid clashes with Israeli forces because of lingering sensitivities over the Holocaust.

Israel, Germany at odds over Lebanon air incident
Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:50pm ET

Quote:By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel denied a German newspaper report on Wednesday that two of its air force planes had fired twice as they flew over a German navy ship patrolling the Lebanon coast as part of an international peacekeeper force.

Germany's Defense Ministry said an incident had occurred, without giving details.

The German daily Der Tagesspiegel quoted a German junior defense minister as telling a parliamentary committee two Israeli F-16 fighters had flown low over the ship, firing twice.
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The jets also activated infra-red countermeasures to ward off any rocket attack, the paper quoted him as saying, in an advance release from Thursday's edition.

"There was no such incident," an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

Israeli air force patrols over Lebanon have come under international scrutiny since a U.N.-brokered truce on Aug 14 ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie last week described the overflights as "extremely dangerous" because they could be mistakenly perceived as hostile to the boosted U.N. peacekeeper force in southern Lebanon and trigger a response.

Israel has rebuffed such warnings, saying the Lebanese overflights are needed to monitor arms smuggling to Hezbollah.

Continued...


USS Liberty, anyone?

[Fixation]

And so it starts?...

I'll believe the Germans over the Israelis any day lol!

Its amazing how little press interest this report has had. Perhaps it was a warm up.

[Shinobi]

The same old shit eh! Shitting on em selves as usual, pesky ******* ... I had to censor that.

Right @ USSLiberty mifune, yes

Indeed Fixation, its to be expected from the Israbylon

[Enemy]

The thing is, Germany is not Israel. Although they would be held over a barrel if they did defend themselves. They should, as should any UN force attacked by zionist henchmen.

[tsoldrin]

I don't think USS Liberty... it's not like they were trying to sink the ship and blame it on hezbollah is it? More likely Israel was just taking some pot shots for the hell of it... just because they can, with impunity... or warning them off so they could get up to no-good without any peacekeeper seeing whats they're up to.

I fully think Israel has pulled out of Lebanon temporarilly and probably as some concession to the u.s. elections coming up. We'll see if they jump back in after a fake attack on themselves on say... the 8th. They're definitely not done.