By Al-Fassel and AFP | 2023-11-20

AL-ARISH -- Clutching a blown-up surgical glove as a makeshift toy, a Palestinian child is stretchered onto a plane to Abu Dhabi -– one of the Israel-Hamas war's first evacuees to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for urgent medical treatment.

In the dead of night at Egypt's al-Arish airport, near the Rafah border crossing from Gaza, the child is carried carefully from the back of one of six yellow ambulances waiting near the runway, blue lights flashing.

A hydraulic platform lifts the wheeled stretchers into the back of a plane until eight children in various stages of injury and distress, some accompanied by relatives, are aboard.

The initial group of evacuated children, who arrived in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi early Saturday (November 18), are the first of an expected 1,000 who will be airlifted to the UAE for medical help.

Among the children, one has a fractured spine and another a broken leg. Others have burns, and one needs urgent treatment for cancer. Two more with severe injuries did not board and were expected to join the next flight.

The humanitarian airlifts for children could now happen daily, an aid official said.

"We would like to carry out daily evacuations because there are injured people, hospitals out of service, and a shortage of medicines," said Mohammed Al Kaabi from the Emirates Red Crescent.

"God willing, during the next week we will have evacuated whomever we can, because time is precious and there are lives we are losing."

The airlifts are among a number of humanitarian initiatives by the UAE.

The UAE has sent 51 planes carrying 1,400 tons of food and relief supplies as part of a $20 million aid package, a foreign ministry statement said.

The humanitarian aid drive, conducted via an air bridge, is part of Operation Gallant Knight 3, according to the Emirati news agency (WAM).

On Sunday, a UAE humanitarian aid convoy set off from al-Arish towards the Rafah crossing in preparation for its entry into the Gaza, the agency said.

The convoy comprises 13 trucks carrying a total of 272.5 tons of aid, including food packages to support 84,000 people, and 360 tents.

France sends aid ship to Gaza

France is meanwhile preparing to send its Dixmude helicopter carrier to the eastern Mediterranean to offer medical assistance in Gaza.

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

A charter flight carrying more than 10 tons 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."

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

France on November 9 hosted a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza, stressing the need to protect civilians amid the ongoing Hamas-Israeli war.

Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were "too many civilian losses" in Gaza, his office said Sunday.

The French leader also reminded Netanyahu of the "absolute necessity to distinguish terrorists from the population" and "the importance of achieving an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire."

He spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday 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.