"Risk of escalation has increased" Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern advises against travel to Israel and Iran

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern advised against traveling to Israel and Iran on Friday. Following the liquidation of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, Iran's leadership announced a harsh response.

"We advise against tourist and other non-urgent travel to Israel. Travel to individual parts of the country is generally not recommended. The risk of escalation has increased further," wrote the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on the online portal X on Friday evening.

This is not the first travel warning issued by the FDFA for Israel. The development of the situation is uncertain and a further deterioration in the security situation is possible at any time, and the risk of escalation has increased further, it said back in April following a large-scale rocket attack from Iran.

Following the targeted killing of the political leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniya, mass anti-Israeli and anti-Western protests broke out in the capital Tehran on Wednesday night.

However, the violence in the Middle East originally escalated after the attack by Hamas and other militant groups on Israeli villages from the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year and the subsequent massacre by these terrorists of Jews with around 1,200 fatalities, numerous rapes and kidnappings.

The Israeli army responded with an ongoing counter-attack on Gaza with no regard for the civilian population, which according to UN figures has so far led to the deaths of almost 40,000 Palestinians, most of them presumably civilians.

However, Hamas is still holding a good hundred Israeli civilians hostage in the Gaza Strip.

SDA