A week after more than 7,000 people protested in Bern at the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israeli sympathisers have gathered in the Swiss capital.

Police estimated the crowd outside Bern cathedral on Saturday at 500. In Geneva some 800 pro-Palestine supporters demonstrated outside the headquarters of the United Nations, where they called for an "end to the massacre".

Israeli leaders have made clear they are ready to keep pushing forward with an offensive that has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians – roughly half of them civilians – in three weeks, according to Palestinian and UN figures.

In Bern speakers stressed the legitimacy of the Israeli action. Vreni Müller-Hemmi from the Swiss-Israel Association, which organised the demonstration, said both sides had made mistakes.

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