Germany has said there is an “urgent need” for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza threatened to spread to Lebanon, AFP reports.

“We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims,” the German foreign ministry wrote on X.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been in contact with her Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to discuss the next steps, it added.

The German federal government said it was “deeply concerned” by the recent escalation in the region but added that it was not “inevitable”. “A diplomatic solution to the conflict must be possible,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.