And two. A week after the departure of the helicopter carrier "Tonnerre", transformed into a hospital boat and sent to Gaza to support the hospitals there, the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced on Franceinfo that France would send a second helicopter carrier off the Palestinian enclave.
It will therefore be the helicopter carrier "Diksmuide" that will leave for Gaza. The ship "is in the process of being equipped to be transformed into a hospital boat", Lecornu said, adding that it "could be equipped with a certain number of hospital beds", while hospitals in the Palestinian enclave are without electricity.
Military aircraft in addition to helicopter carriers
The departure date for this second helicopter carrier has not yet been set. According to the Minister of the Armed Forces, "the planning" of sending it "is in the process of being done". He will be ready to set sail "around mid-November", the minister's entourage told Franceinfo.
Two of the three French helicopter carriers are therefore mobilized to provide humanitarian and medical support to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, depending on humanitarian aid arriving in dribs and drabs via the Egyptian border.
In addition to "Diksmuide" and "Tonnerre", two French military planes are due to land in Egypt on Friday and Sunday to deliver medical equipment, as was the case last week.
According to information from Franceinfo and BFMTV, Sébastien Lecornu, who is currently visiting southern Lebanon to call for the de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, is due to visit the "Tonnerre" on Thursday evening.