Two Israeli warplanes were involved in an armed incident with a German ship patrolling Lebanon’s waters. A spokesman for the command of the German mission in Lebanon said it was investigating the incident which took place on Monday. According to Thursday’s edition of the Tagesspiegel newspaper, two Israeli F-16 warplanes fired shots as well as anti-missile defence flares while flying low over the German vessel.

The newspaper said the incident had been reported to parliament on Wednesday by a state secretary in the defence ministry, Christian Schmidt.

In Israel, Defence Minister Amir Peretz denied his country’s planes had opened fire near a German ship, in a telephone call with German counterpart Franz Josep Jung.

“No Israeli plane opened fire at a German ship and Israel has no intention of attacking the German forces,” Peretz said, according to his spokesman.

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