We study eastern Mediterranean earthquakes in the magnitude range 5.5--6.5 by body waveform modeling at distances between 17¿ and 30¿. We compute synthetics at these distances using the Gaussian beam summation (GBS) method, taking into account all waves refracted and reflected by the upper mantle discontinuities. Modeling depends crucially on the choice of an appropriate upper mantle model. Using the well-known May 13, 1995, Kozani--Grevena event in Greece, we choose a representative column of the 3SMAC upper mantle model as an average velocity structure for modeling eastern Mediterranean earthquakes recorded in Europe. We studied three events with different tectonic settings, location, and magnitude. For the July 20, 1996, Dodecanese earthquake we determined a depth of 12.5 km, a source duration of 6 s, and a seismic moment of 1.20¿1018 Nm. Most of the seismograms for this event are very well modeled. Using only seismograms recorded at the epicentral range 17¿--30¿, we modeled the October 1, 1995, Turkey event. We find a depth of 9 km and a normal fault mechanism in agreement with the regional tectonic setting. Finally, we studied the February 23, 1995, earthquake in Cyprus for which we retrieved depth, source time function, and a seismic moment of 2.04¿1018 Nm. The upper mantle phases for all these events are well identified and modeled. We conclude that GBS can be used to model seismograms at intermediate distances, retrieving information about both fault plane solution, depth and source time functions. Propagation effects are also observed, but they can not be inverted with this limited data set. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union