World

PARIS — France is preparing to send its Dixmude helicopter carrier to the eastern Mediterranean to offer medical assistance in Gaza, the office of the French president said on Sunday.

The Dixmude will set sail "at the start of the week and arrive in Egypt in the coming days", President Emmanuel Macron's office said.

A charter flight carrying more than 10 tonnes of medical supplies is also planned for the start of the week.

"France will also contribute to the European effort with medical equipment on board European flights on November 23 and 30," the presidential office said.

It added that "France is mobilising all its available means to contribute to the evacuation of wounded and sick children requiring emergency care from the Gaza Strip to its hospitals".

Macron said later on X, formerly Twitter, that up to 50 children could be flown for treatment in hospitals in France "if useful and necessary".

Also on Sunday, Macron spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani and with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi about ongoing negotiations to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Saturday was in Qatar, which is leading the mediation efforts.

The French president and his Egyptian counterpart agreed on the “need to increase the number of trucks entering Gaza and to reinforce coordination to deliver humanitarian aid and treat the wounded”, Macron’s office said.

In Gaza, around 12,300 people, more than 5,000 of them children, have been killed by Israel, officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.

WASHINGTON — Gaza and the West Bank should eventually be "reunited" under a new Palestinian Authority, US President Joe Biden said in an opinion piece Saturday, as questions swirl over the future of the region once Israel achieves its goal of crushing the Hamas militant group.

"As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalised Palestinian Authority, as we all work towards a two-state solution," Biden wrote in the piece published in The Washington Post.

"A two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people. Though right now it may seem like that future has never been further away, this crisis has made it more imperative than ever," Biden said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reject Biden's plan, but said the Palestinian Authority "in its current form is not capable of receiving responsibility for Gaza."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the Hamas attack and his senior ministers are celebrating it, Netanyahu said.

"We can't have a civilian authority in Gaza that supports terror, encourages terror, pays terror, and teaches terror," he said at a news conference.

Abbas, meanwhile, appealed to Biden to use his “significant influence” on Israel “to intervene immediately to... stop this humanitarian catastrophe, this genocide against our innocent people”.

In his letter, Biden also threatened sanctions against settlers committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank amid the conflict in Gaza.

“I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable,” he said.

“The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”

The United States said Saturday it was still working to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas after a reported tentative agreement to free women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a pause in fighting.

“We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on X, formerly Twitter, in response to The Washington Post reporting a deal had been agreed.

The Post said a detailed, six-page agreement could mean hostage releases begin within days and could also lead to the first sustained pause in the conflict in Gaza.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said all parties would halt combat operations for at least five days while some hostages were released in batches, with overhead surveillance monitoring movement to police the pause.

But the White House quickly responded on Saturday evening with its message on X to deny any major breakthrough.

Biden’s main adviser on the Middle East said earlier Saturday there would be a “significant pause” in the war if hostages held by fighters in Gaza were freed.

“The surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause... will come when hostages are released,” Brett McGurk told a security conference in Bahrain.

The release of a large number of hostages would result in “a significant pause... and a massive surge of humanitarian relief”, he said.

McGurk said Biden had discussed the issue on Friday evening with the ruler of the Gulf nation of Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts toward a ceasefire and release of the captives.

This week Biden said he was “mildly hopeful” of reaching a deal to free the hostages, believed to include about 10 US citizens.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Sunday that a deal to free hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 now hinges on “minor” practical issues without providing details or a timeline.

Qatar has helped to broker talks aiming to free some of the about 240 hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war. 

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared to the bigger challenges, they are more logistical, they are more practical,” Al Thani told a joint press conference with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — A top United Nations official on Friday renewed calls for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to allow aid to reach the 2.2 million people trapped in the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“Call it what you will, but the requirement, from a humanitarian point of view, is simple. Stop the fighting to allow civilians to move safely,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

“We are not asking for the moon,” Griffiths said. “We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis.”

Griffiths also called for the release of all hostages held in Gaza without condition.

In Gaza, 12,000 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, in a relentless Israeli campaign, officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.

“Give the people of Gaza a breather from the terrible, terrible things that have been put on them these last few weeks,” Griffiths pleaded.

The call comes days after the UN Security Council called for “extended humanitarian pauses” in the Gaza Strip, the first time it has broken its silence since the start of the war.

Griffiths called for opening more border crossings into Gaza, especially the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, which was responsible for 60 per cent of goods getting into the besieged territory before the start of the war. 

Currently, only the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is open.

Griffiths said fuel was essential for distributing humanitarian aid and “keeping people alive”.

He also called for improved access for humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza and allowing civilians to move to safer areas.

The humanitarian response will cost an estimated $1.2 billion, of which only $132 million have been received so far, he said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, also called for a ceasefire “on humanitarian and human rights grounds, and an end to the fighting”.

“Not only to deliver urgently needed food and provide meaningful humanitarian assistance, but also to create space for a path out of this horror,” he said.

The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the Gazan health system was close to collapse with “more and more casualties, and fewer and fewer beds, health workers, medicines and supplies”.

“Frankly, the amount of aid that has been allowed into Gaza so far is pitiful,” he said, adding that “the scale of Israel’s response appears increasingly unjustifiable”.

“WHO, like the rest of the United Nations system, is impartial,” he said. “We are not on one side or the other. We are on the side of humanity.”

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine said two first responders were killed and at least seven people injured in Russian rocket strikes on the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday.

The attacks came as Kyiv’s air force said Russia fired 38 drones at its territory overnight — the highest reported number in more than six weeks.

Ukrainian police said Russia fired a series of rocket strikes at the village of Komyshuvakha, close to the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claimed to have annexed last year.

“As a result of the first two strikes, four local residents were injured and a fire broke out in a residential building,” they said in a statement.

“When the police and rescuers arrived at the scene, Russians conducted another strike. Two emergency service workers were killed, and three more were injured.”

Separately, Ukraine’s air force said Saturday it shot down 29 of the 38 Iranian-made Shahed drones — also known as “kamikaze drones” because they are packed with explosives to detonate upon reaching their targets — fired by Russia.

According to its figures, that is the most drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack since September 30.

An energy facility was hit in the southern Odesa region, with the resulting fire quickly extinguished, Ukraine’s emergency services said.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down 20 Ukrainian aerial drones over Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, and seven naval drones in the Black Sea, off the annexed peninsula of Crimea.

Ukraine also said Saturday that its forces “continue to hold positions on the left [eastern] bank of the Dnipro river”.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have been entrenched on opposite sides of the vast waterway in the southern Kherson region for more than a year, after Russia withdrew its troops from the western bank last November.

Ukrainian forces have staged multiple attempts to cross and hold positions on the Russian-controlled side — with officials in Kyiv finally reporting a “successful” breakthrough last week.

“Our defenders are consolidating their positions and firing on the occupiers,” the general staff said in a Saturday morning briefing on its operations on the eastern side of the river.

WOODSIDE, United States — US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at their first summit in a year on Wednesday to restore military communications between the two countries".

 The leaders shook hands and strolled around a garden at a historic California estate during four-hour talks aimed at preventing growing tensions between the world's largest economies from spiraling into conflict.

They also agreed that China would crack down on the production of ingredients for fentanyl, responsible for a deadly epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States, with Xi saying he "sympathises" with US victims of the deadly drug, which has ravaged communities across the country.

But Xi and Biden remained far apart on the wider flashpoint of Taiwan, with the Chinese president telling his US counterpart to stop arming the island and that reunification was "unstoppable".

Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-ruling democracy and has not ruled out seizing it by force.

The two leaders had not met in person since they held talks in Bali in November 2022, and relations nosedived after the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February this year.

But Biden told a press conference at the Filoli estate that his talks with Xi, whom he has known since 2011, were “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had”.

The United States would compete “vigorously” but “responsibly” with an increasingly assertive China “so it doesn’t veer into conflict or accidental conflict”, Biden said.

“He and I agreed that each one of us could pick up the phone, call directly and we’ll be heard immediately.”

The separate move to restore high-level US-China military-to-military communications, which China severed after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, was “critically important” to avoid possible conflicts, Biden added.

The two sides also agreed to hold talks on artificial intelligence and to deepen cooperation on climate change ahead of the COP28 conference in Dubai next month.

Diplomats had spent months trying to get the talks to happen, and then arranging the smallest details at the exclusive estate, which featured in the US television soap opera “Dynasty” in the 1980s.

Xi appeared to brush off the comment, telling an audience hours later that growing US-China ties were vital to both countries.

“I believe that once the door to China-US relations is opened, it will not be closed again,” he said.

“China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.”

The carefully cultivated symbolism of the day saw red carpet handshakes, delegations sitting on either side of a huge table, and culminating with Biden and Xi taking the air in the grounds.

They also shared a working lunch of herbed ricotta ravioli and tarragon chicken with gold rice pilaf.