France vows to send ship to support region's inhabitants

France is to send a navy ship to help support hospitals in the Gaza Strip, President Emmanuel Macron has said, amid growing international concern about the humanitarian crisis developing in the region.

Following the attacks on Israel earlier this month by Hamas fighters that left more than 1,400 people dead, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered what he called a "complete siege" of Gaza.

"There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed," the Times of Israel newspaper quoted him as saying.

But the blanket nature of the embargo, which is in place ahead of a widely-expected military offensive by Israel, has been heavily criticized, and a small number of aid lorries have been allowed access via the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

French channel BFMTV reported the ship Macron said on Wednesday would leave the port city of Toulon within 48 hours is a helicopter carrier called the Tonnerre.

France, Macron continued, would be "fully involved in securing access to medicines and care" for people in Gaza.

He made the comments in the Egyptian capital Cairo, on the second day of a trip in which he has also visited Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab states to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, so have been strategically important mediators in times of high regional tensions.

"International law applies to everyone and France carries the universal values of humanism," Macron explained, while also saying a plane load of medical supplies would be sent to Egypt, to be forwarded to Gaza.

"All human lives are equal and all victims deserve our sympathy and our permanent commitment (to promote) a just and lasting peace in the Middle East," he added.

At a joint news conference with Macron, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the pair had discussed "the importance of striving to avoid a ground invasion" because of the "many, many civilian casualties" that would inevitably be incurred.

They also both reiterated their support for the two-state solution to resolve the long-running tensions in the region between Israel and the Palestinians.

"It is not because it is an old idea that it is an obsolete idea," explained Macron.

Earlier in the trip, Macron met Jordan's King Abdullah II in the capital city, Amman, where the king said "stopping the war on Gaza is an absolute necessity, and the world must move immediately in this direction".