A Further Incident

The incident occurred on Thursday night involving a helicopter belonging to the German navy and Israeli F16 bombers. According to a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, several Israeli jets had forced the German helicopter to give way.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung played down the incident. One couldn't speak of a "confrontation with Israeli soldiers," he said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

A German defense ministry spokesman said the incident had not been dangerous or threatening. The Israeli military leadership had promised there would be no more such occurrences, the spokesman added.

Case closed?

"There were certain incidents, which we discussed with Israel in the appropriate manner," Jung told the FAZ. "I view the case thus as closed," he said.

Germany was taken by surprise by the most recent incident, as Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz recently smoothed over ruffled feathers after a confrontation on Tuesday between Israeli aircraft and a German vessel patrolling Lebanon's coast.

According to the German version of events, Israeli jets had flown very low over the German ship and fired two shots. A German helicopter that took off after the shots were fired was forced to land by the jets.

The Israeli army denied that shots had been fired but issued differing versions of events over the subsequent days.

Jung plans to travel to the Middle East this week, but has cancelled a trip to Asia that was due to begin Sunday.

The German army is patrolling the coast of Lebanon under a UN mandate to prevent illegal arms deliveries to the Hezbollah militia.

Concerns about foreign missions

The decision to deploy German troops near Israel was initially met with skepticism by German politicians and the public amid fears that confrontations between German soldiers and Israelis could occur. Germany is especially sensitive on the issue of foreign deployments after years of trying to overhaul its image as the country responsible for World War II and the Holocaust.

Israel had launched a wide-scale offensive against Hezbollah on July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid and killed five others. The hostilities came to an end one month later after the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1701.

The resolution calls for a ceasefire and the deployment of UN troops alongside the Lebanese army along the border with Israel.