Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday that Israel’s raids on Gaza “are shattering the tangible hopes of so many Israelis and Palestinians of an end to suffering on all sides”, AFP reports.

Speaking before starting a trip to Lebanon, she called on “all sides” in the conflict to “show restraint, respect humanitarian law and return to talks” after hundreds were killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza.

“The lives of dozens of hostages, including Germans… [and] of many thousands of Palestinians” depend on peace, she said.

She also warned that there was “a serious risk of wider regional escalation” at a time when “the situation in Lebanon has stabilised and there have been steps towards settling the conflict at the Israeli-Lebanese border”.

Baerbock will hold meetings with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, both of whom took office this year in the wake of an offensive between Israel and Hezbollah.