Protesters light flares as they take to the streets to call on the Israeli cabinet to sign a hostage deal and hold early elections during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 1.
Keystone
Switzerland supports a new peace proposal pushed by US President Joe Biden for a hostage agreement and a ceasefire in Gaza.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/Reuters
Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.
“A political perspective based on a two-state solution must be re-established,” wrote Nicolas Bideau, head of communications at the Swiss foreign ministry, on X on Saturday.
Switzerland supports President Biden’s three-phase plan for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza, humanitarian aid and a path to a permanent end to hostilities, the spokesperson said.
Gaza conflict mediators are urging Israel and Hamas to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by Biden that they said would bring immediate relief to people in Gaza and to the hostages and their families.
Israel has said there will be no formal end to the war as long as Hamas retains power, raising questions of timing and interpretation over the truce offer, which has been provisionally welcomed by the Palestinian faction.
Biden said on Friday that Israel had proposed a deal involving an initial six-week ceasefire with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages while “a permanent end to hostilities” is negotiated through mediators.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been seeking for months to mediate an end to the war, but a deal has proven elusive.
Hamas said on Friday it was ready to engage “positively and in a constructive manner”. But senior official Mahmoud Mardawi told Qatari television it had not yet received details of the proposal.
Adpated from German by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
What do you think Switzerland’s Alain Berset can bring to the Council of Europe?
The former interior minister is to become the first Swiss Secretary General of the Council of Europe – which issues should his five-year term focus on?
How is your country dealing with the return of stolen artifacts?
Western nations like Switzerland often have to deal with the process of recovering or returning looted artifacts which have been illegally imported. What’s the situation like in your country?
Norwegian zombie film wins main prize at Swiss festival NIFFF
This content was published on
More than 55,000 people celebrated the fantastic film at the International Fantastic Film Festival in Neuchâtel (NIFFF) - fewer than last year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.