German defence minister visits troops at UN force in Lebanon

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius travelled to Lebanon on Thursday to visit German soldiers serving in a U.N. peacekeeping force in the region in the wake of a major escalation between neighbouring Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Berlin has deployed some 140 soldiers on a corvette off the Lebanese coast and at the headquarters of the UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon that was hit by a rocket on Sunday without causing casualties. "On the corvette Oldenburg, (the minister) thanked the sailors for their efforts and was briefed on the impact the conflict in Israel and Gaza is having on German soldiers in the region," the defence ministry in Berlin said on the social media platform X, formerly called Twitter.