Swiss International Air Lines will send a special flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv on Tuesday to repatriate Swiss nationals after the shock Hamas assault on Israel.

An Airbus A321 with 219 seats will leave Tel Aviv at 6:15 pm (1515 GMT) Tuesday, it said in a statement.

"Swiss nationals will thus have the opportunity to return home as soon as possible," the airline said on Monday.

"The flight can only be booked via a special hotline communicated by the foreign ministry to Swiss nationals and travellers in Israel."

Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip on Monday and cut off water supply as it kept bombing targets in the crowded Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas attack it has likened to 9/11.

SWISS said it was cancelling all its scheduled flights to and from Tel Aviv until Saturday.

Before the conflict erupted, the Lufthansa subsidiary operated 14 flights per week between the two cities.

Around 28,000 Swiss nationals and their families are officially registered as living in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Around 430 people with links to Switzerland are registered on the foreign ministry's Travel Admin app.