More than 20 injured in Israeli strike on Lebanon as Germany urges citizens to leave

Escalation comes as top Israeli official threatens to send Lebanon 'back to the Stone Age'

Smoke billows in the Israeli northern town of Metulla from cross-border rockets launched from the Lebanese side on June 26. AFP

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More than 20 people have been injured in an overnight Israeli strike on south Lebanon, as the German Foreign Ministry urged its citizens to leave the country amid the deteriorating security situation.

The attack in the centre of the city of Nabatieh hit a residential building with seven wounded by the strike and 14 injured as a result of “panic, stress and suffocation”, Lebanon's state National News Agency said. None of the injuries were described as serious.

Nabatieh is far from the border with Israel and has not been hit often since the exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military began in October in response to Israel's war on Gaza.

Israel did not immediately say who its military was targeting. Ten civilians were killed in an Israeli attack on Nabatieh in February.

Germany, which sent a Foreign Ministry delegation to Beirut earlier this week, said its citizens “are urgently urged to leave Lebanon” in an updated travel advisory.

“The current heightened tensions in the border area with Israel could escalate further at any time,” it said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who also visited Israel, warned that any “miscalculation” could trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“With every rocket across the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, the danger grows that a miscalculation could trigger a hot war,” she said.

“All who bear responsibility must exercise extreme restraint.”

Many countries have in recent days doubled down on calls for their citizens to depart the country as hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group and political party Hezbollah are on the brink of a full-scale conflict.

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad on Wednesday said “the hospital sector is ready to face any emergency” if the situation continues to escalate.

On a visit to Washington, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country could “take Lebanon back to the Stone Age, but we don't want to do it”.

“We do not want war but we are preparing for every scenario,” he said.

“Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.”

His US counterpart Lloyd Austin told Mr Gallant that another war with Hezbollah could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East” and called for a diplomatic solution.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva that Lebanon was “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints”.

“It's beyond planning. It's potentially apocalyptic,” Mr Griffiths said.

A war involving Lebanon “will draw in Syria … it will draw in others”, he said. “It's very alarming.”

Hezbollah and Israel last fought a full-scale war in 2006.

Israel has threatened and prepared a land incursion into south Lebanon, where it wants to restore security for its displaced residents on its northern border. Tens of thousands have been displaced on either side of the border.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has also said it does not want war but is ready for one if it is imposed on Lebanon, will not end its attacks until Israel ceases its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where more than 37,700 Palestinians have been killed since October. The deaths came after Hamas launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200.