Violations in Gaza by ‘both sides’ must be condemned, says Swiss minister

"All violations must be condemned, and there are violations on both sides," Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told Swiss public television, RTS, on Tuesday. Keystone-SDA

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has admitted that Israel is failing in its obligations by hindering humanitarian aid to Gaza. But he refuses to join international criticism of the Israeli government, stating that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is also responsible for the current situation.

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“All violations must be condemned, and there are violations on both sides,” Cassis told Swiss public television, RTS, on Tuesday. “I condemn any violation of international law, whether by Hamas or Israel.”

The Swiss foreign ministry has come under heavy criticism for its attitude towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With regard to the shooting of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during aid distributions over the past few days, Cassis says that there is “an information war” going on.

“There were gunshots; who fired where, we’ll never know. We can’t believe either side,” he said.

“But we must condemn the fact that neither side is allowing humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip and be properly distributed,” said Cassis. “If Hamas returned the hostages to Israel, we would have had a ceasefire a long time ago.”

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Asked about the decision not to sign the letter from 22 European countries calling for humanitarian aid to be managed by the United Nations and NGOs, and not by Israel, Cassis pointed out that the letter was “a trial of intent against a foundation of which we knew nothing”, referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that is overseeing aid deliveries.

He criticised “a position that is not neutral”.

The GHF, the opaquely funded organisation behind the bloody distributions of recent days, is supported by the United States and Israel.

Under fire from critics

The Swiss minister has come under heavy criticism for his attitude towards the situation in Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general.

In an open letter to the head of diplomacy, 56 former Swiss diplomats declared on Sunday that they were shocked by Switzerland’s “silence and passivity” in the face of the “war crimes” committed by Israel in the Palestinian enclave. They demanded immediate measures against Israel.

According to SonntagsBlick, Cassis has also received a letter from foreign ministry staff requesting him to “strongly condemn the indiscriminate operations of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank”.

On Wednesday, more than 80 organisations and individuals, including former government ministers Micheline Calmy-Rey and Ruth Dreifuss, sent an open letter to the Federal Council urging it to act.

An appeal from the left-wing Social Democratic Party condemning “the increasingly intolerable inaction of official Switzerland” gathered 130,000 signatures, which were handed in to the Federal Chancellery on Monday.

The parliaments of cantons Vaud, Fribourg and Jura, as well as the cities of Lausanne and Geneva, have also passed resolutions calling for greater commitment from the federal government on this issue.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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