Wrecked cars and damaged buildings in the Israeli city of Ashkelon following rocket attacks from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Keystone / Atef Safadi
Switzerland's foreign ministry has condemned attacks on Israel after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Saturday launched the biggest assault on the country in years.
“We demand an immediate end to the use of violence,” said the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on Saturday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Bern joins a number of other countries that have condemned the attacks including Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
The protection of civilians is essential, the FDFA stressed.
Since Saturday morning, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip, killing at least one person in Israel and ending a truce that had generally been respected since the end of a 5-day war between Israel and Gaza in May.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had unleashed “a war against the State of Israel”. In response to this military offensive, the Israeli army said on Saturday morning that it had begun carrying out air strikes on the Gaza Strip. In a brief statement, it confirmed that several “dozens (of its) fighter jets (were) currently striking a number of Hamas targets” in the territory.
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