Israel declares UN chief 'persona non grata'

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck warned that the situation in the Middle East is "dangerous" in response to a question by DW Chief Political Editor Michaela Küfner.

Habeck said that "there is the need for solidarity with Israel deep in the German political attitude," while urging for diplomacy and de-escalation.

"Diplomacy needs to be in the background and the foreground," Habeck said.

He said that the situation was "dangerous" and that further "escalation could happen shortly."

DW's Beirut bureau chief, Mohamad Chreyteh, was in the Lebanese capital's southern Dahiyeh district.

He surveyed the destruction following several waves of Israeli air strikes, which Israel has claimed targeted infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah militant group.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a stronger response would follow if Israel retaliates to its missile attack on Tuesday.

"If [Israel] wants to react, we will have a stronger response, this is what the Islamic Republic is committed to," Pezeshkian said in a joint press conference in Doha, Qatar alongside Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

"We are not looking for war, it is Israel that forces us to react," Pezeshkian said.

"We also want security and peace. It was Israel that assassinated [Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh] in Tehran," he said.

He accused Israel of aiming to "cause insecurity and spread crisis in the region."

"What we want from US and European countries is to tell the entity they have planted in the region to stop the bloodshed," Pezeshkian said, referring to Israel.

He spoke a day after Iran fired around 200 missiles towards Israel, most of which were intercepted.

At the same press conference, Sheikh Tamim warned that Israel was drawing the region to the "brink of the abyss" in attacking southern Lebanon. He also condemned Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying that Qatar would continue working to mediate a cease-fire between Israeli and the Hamas militant group.

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East analyst and professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told DW that Iran aimed to "restore deterrence" in its recent missile strikes on Israel.

Gerges said that Iran had "no choice but to retaliate" against Israel "in order to restore deterrence vis-a-vis Israel."

He said that Iran's missile strike on Israel might also have been looking to give Hezbollah militants, who he described as Tehran's most important regional ally, a "psychological boost."

"Hezbollah is rattled after … major blows" inflicted on it by Israel, he said.

Israel has engaged in bombing and cross-border raids of southern Lebanon and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week.

Gerges said he believed that Iran did not "want to escalate," saying he thought Tehran had tried to indicate that it would be "the end of the second round" if Israel does not respond in kind to the missile strike. In this context, he was treating Iran's other, less sophisticated attack on Israel in April, following the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus in Syria, as the first round. 

He said that Israel was likely to engage in "strategic, qualitative escalation … [targeting] Iran's strategic targets like the oil industry or industrial infrastructure or even Iran's nuclear program."

He described the conflicts in the Middle East as "interconnected," concluding that the "most important key to de-escalation and to prevent a wider regional conflict is to have a permanent cease-fire in Gaza."

Israel said that eight of its soldiers had been killed in combat with the Hezbollah militant group in southern Lebanon.

A further seven soldiers were wounded, some of them seriously, the IDF military said.

The deaths are Israel's first combat losses since it launched cross-border raids earlier this week.

Israel has said its troops are engaging in "targeted ground raids" against Hezbollah.

Israel's army had previously reported a death toll of one.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an end to retaliatory violence in the Middle East during an address to the organization's Security Council.

It comes after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel following Israeli strikes on Lebanon, with Israel saying it is targeting the Iran-supported Hezbollah militant group.

"I again strongly condemn yesterday's massive missile attack by Iran on Israel," Guterres said, adding that the "deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop."

"It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff," he said. "Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next."

He called for a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of all hostages held by Palestinian militant groups, as well as "irreversible progress" towards a two-state solution in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Guterres said that he condemned attacks on civilians, adding that over 1,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023.

The secretary-general called for the UN's UNIFIL peacekeeping force to remain in southern Lebanon and called for the security and safety of UN personnel to be ensured. He said that Israel had requested the peacekeeping force be "relocated."

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced he was barring Guterres from entering the country over what he described as the UN chief's failure to specifically condemn Iran's recent missile attack on Israel.

Katz also accused Guterres of supporting Iran and Tehran-supported militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Germany Interior Minister Nancy Faeser criticized anti-Israel street rallies, where people appeared to celebrate news of Iran's large-scale missile attack on Israel on Tuesday evening.

A protest already underway on the streets of Berlin, not long after Israel said its troops had begun limited operations in Lebanon, broke out into cheers amid news of the Iranian attack on Israel, with many wearing Palestinian scarves and some waving Lebanese flags.

"I am filled with consternation and angry that such a form of violence is being celebrated," Faeser told journalists. "Any act that glorifies and supports Hamas or Hezbollah in Germany is punishable, even on the streets," she added.

Faeser warned that police would crack down on demonstrations who support Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

"Propaganda for these terrorists can be consistently prosecuted. In my view, we need crystal-clear stop signs here," she said.

Faeser added that German security services were closely monitoring for "possible effects" on the security situation in Germany, adding that "the threat posed by Islamist, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel acts is high."

The German Foreign Office summoned Iran's ambassador to condemn Tuesday's attack on Israel "in the strongest possible terms," a Foreign Office spokesman said in Berlin on Wednesday.

Germany called on Iran to desist from any further attacks, either by itself or by its allies.

Since the ambassador was not in Berlin at the time, the message was relayed to Iran's chargé d'affaires, the spokesman said.

Regarding the issue of further sanctions on Iran, the spokesman said there was an "entire range of measures" that was being explored. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock plans to coordinate measures with her counterparts from the US, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, the spokesman said. 

G7 foreign ministers are expected to hold a conference call to discuss the attack on Wednesday.

Russia has called on all parties to the Middle East conflict to exercise restraint. Moscow also said it condemned all attacks against civilians.

"Of course we condemn all actions that lead to the death of civilians," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies on Wednesday.

Russia said the situation in the Middle East was developing "according to the most alarming scenario."

"We have our contacts with all sides in this conflict, we are continuing to maintain our contacts and call on all sides to exercise restraint," Peskov said.

Peskov did not directly criticize Iran for the missile attack on Israel on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign minister had reported six deaths in Russian shelling of a market in the city of Kherson near the front lines.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) leaders to discuss the tensions in the Middle East.

Meloni's office said it was coordinating the virtual meeting, which would take place later on Wednesday.

"Italy will continue to work for a diplomatic solution, also in its capacity as rotating president of the G7. I have called a meeting at leader level for this afternoon," she told ministers.

Meloni told her Cabinet that there was "deep concern" about the latest developments, including Iran's missile attack against Israel, her office said. Meloni also spoke about instability in Lebanon.

"The goal is the stabilization of the Israeli-Lebanese border through the full implementation of Resolution 1701," she said in reference to the UN resolution that put a stop to the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon.

"In this framework, Italy has called on the UN Security Council to consider strengthening the mandate of the UNIFIL mission in order to ensure the security of the Israel-Lebanon border," Meloni added.

Italy is a major contributor to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington D.C., has told DW the recent missile strikes by Iran against Israel differed notably from previous ones in scale and timing. 

"This attack literally doubled the scale and the scope of the previous attack," Taleblu said, noting that the strike included "about 181 publicly reported medium-range ballistic missiles launched from Iranian territory directly at Israel."

An April attack by Iran on Israel used about 300 projectiles but far fewer medium-range ballistic missiles.

When asked about Israel's potential response, Taleblu noted that despite having advanced air defense systems, Iran's ability to intercept Israeli attacks remained limited.

"The chances of a successful aerial interception by the Islamic Republic of Iran is pretty much close to nil," he said. 

Taleblu also mentioned that Israel's retaliation could target a wide range of Iranian facilities, including nuclear sites, missile programs, and proxy forces across the region.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has barred UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, accusing him of bias against Israel. 

Katz declared Guterres "persona non grata" following what he described as the UN chief's failure to specifically condemn Iran's recent missile attack on Israel. 

Guterres issued a brief statement on Tuesday in which he condemned the conflict "with escalation after escalation" and referred to "the latest attacks in the Middle East.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil," Katz said, calling Guterres "an anti-Israel secretary-general."

Katz accused Guterres of supporting groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, which he called the "mothership of global terror." 

The decision has further deepened the rift between Israel and the United Nations.

British Defense Secretary John Healey said the UK armed forces had "played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation" when Iran fired missiles toward Israel.

"The UK stands fully behind Israel's right to defend its country and its people against threats," Healey said.

British media reported that UK fighter pilots based in Cyprus had assisted Israel during Iran's Tuesday night attack, just as they did in April when Iran last targeted Israel with missiles.

Healey is due to visit the UK's Cyprus base on Wednesday, where troops are preparing for the possibility of evacuating British citizens from Lebanon.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has joined the chorus of leaders slamming Iran's attack on Israel, saying she condemned it "in the strongest terms."

"Such actions threaten regional stability and escalate tensions in an already extremely volatile situation," she said.

Von der Leyen then called attention to the civilians caught in the crossfire, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Israel.

"I urge all parties to protect the life of innocent civilians," she said. "The European Union continues to call for a cease-fire across the border with Lebanon, and in Gaza, and for the release of all hostages that are held since almost a year."

The Israeli military has expanded its call for people in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes. 

"Be careful, you must not go south. Any southward movement may put you in danger," spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on social media, saying residents in an additional 24 towns and villages should flee in order to avoid shelling.

The call came a day after Israeli announced the launch of ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Many of the villages are in a UN-mandated buffer zone that was declared in 2006 after the last war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon have already fled their homes amid the recent escalation.