BERLIN, Oct  7, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - A surprise attack by the Palestinian

militant group Hamas against Israel risks provoking a "major regional
escalation", Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Saturday, adding
that "other" actors in the Middle East could join the hostilities.
       "This terrorism by Hamas once again moves the region farther from peace,"
Baerbock said in a statement.
       She added that the violence showed "once again" that "only a political
solution can permit Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and dignity".
       The German government is also "strongly advising" against travel to Israel
or the Palestinian territories, she said, urging Germans in the region to
register with the foreign ministry.
       German flag carrier Lufthansa also said it was cutting flights to Israel
following the wave of Palestinian attacks, a spokesman told AFP.
       "Given the current security situation in Tel Aviv," Lufthansa will maintain
a single flight to Frankfurt but "all other Lufthansa flights to and from Tel
Aviv have been cancelled for this Saturday".
       The German government also said it had bolstered security at synagogues and
other Jewish sites in the country in case of a flare-up of violence in the wake
of the Hamas attacks, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Bild newspaper.