The evacuees were taken in a convoy of buses from Beirut to Syrian capital Damascus where they boarded the chartered Airbus jet for Germany, according to the German news agency DPA.

Beirut international airport has been out of action since Israel launched military offensive last week.

Germany has made plans to evacuate 500 nationals from Lebanon, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday.

Most of the German citizens were being taken overland to Syria and would fly out of Damascus, Steinmeier was quoted by the German news agency DPA as saying.

More than 200 of the estimated 2000 Germans in Lebanon had sought refuge in the Syrian capital where a German airliner will fly them home on Tuesday, Steinmeier said.

The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that three members of a German-Lebanese family were killed in the air raids by the Israeli warplaines.

The family, Mustafa Khachab, 43, his pregnant wife Najwar, 30, and their daughter Jasmin, 14, died in an Israeli air raid last week that destroyed a house in Shoher, Lebanon.

A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday that the government is unable to confirm the report.