The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the BBC that Gaza has become "hell on earth", as Israel's military assault and blockade of aid continues.

Mirjana Spoljaric's comments come on the same day the UN human rights office warned that Israel's tactics were threatening the viability of Palestinians continuing to live in Gaza at all.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday France could recognise a Palestinian state in June.

"We need to move towards recognition (of a Palestinian state). And so over the next few months, we will. I'm not doing it to please anyone. I'll do it because at some point it will be right," he said during a interview on France 5 television.

Macron added that in turn some countries in the Middle East could recognise the state of Israel.

A complaint against 10 British nationals accusing them of committing war crimes while serving with the Israeli military in Gaza will be submitted to the Metropolitan Police on Monday. 

Michael Mansfield KC, one of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers, will hand in a 240-page dossier to Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit. The report will be submitted on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC). 

China and Russia have reaffirmed their deepening ties during a high-level visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

During a three-day visit to Russia, which began on 1 April, Wang Yi met with senior Russian officials and declared China and Russia are “friends forever, never enemies”.

Sources from both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have stated that the two are aiming to hold direct talks for the first time on 9 April. 

The meeting in Doha would be the first direct negotiations since M23 rebels seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities.