The German government approved plans on Wednesday to send up to 2,400 naval and air force troops to Lebanon, underscoring Germany's increasingly prominent role in foreign peace-keeping missions.
The German contingent will help enforce a truce between Israel and Hizbollah after a month-long war that killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.
The question of dispatching German troops to the Middle East some 60 years after the Nazis wiped out 6 million Jews has divided a country, which only recently shed its post-war reluctance to participate in foreign combat missions.
"I am always careful about using grand words, but I think we can say that this mission is not like any other," Merkel told a news conference. "Sending troops to the Middle East is for us a historic decision."
Partly out of concern that German soldiers might be drawn into battle with Israeli forces, the government refused to send ground troops. Instead, the Germans will focus on patrolling the Lebanese coast to prevent arms from reaching Hizbollah.
The German contribution is the second largest for the so-called UNIFIL II force after Italy, which is sending 3,000.
The mission must now be approved by the Bundestag lower house of parliament in a vote which is likely to take place at the end of next week. The governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) enjoys an overwhelming majority in the Bundestag and approval is not in doubt.
But the debate on the mission is likely to be fierce with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Left Party opposing it. If a large number of governing party MPs defect and vote against the deployment, it would reflect badly on Merkel's government, which is already suffering from declining popularity.
Ahead of the vote, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned against "misusing" Germany's historic responsibility towards Israel to justify opposition to the mission.
Germany currently has about 7,700 soldiers in global hotspots, most of them concentrated in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Just seven years ago Germany engaged in its first combat operations since World War Two, taking part in Nato air strikes in Yugoslavia.
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