Wounded Gazan children treated on French warship Dixmude

Palestinian boy Maher's left leg was amputated and his right tibia fractured when his house near Rafah was bombed. He is aboard the French ship Dixmude, which is serving as a hospital as it docks at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish. AFP - KHALED DESOUKI

The French military helicopter carrier Dixmude has been transformed into a hospital to treat wounded civilians from Gaza, many of them children, as Western countries look to ramp up efforts to aid the beseiged enclave.

The warship has been anchored since 27 November in the Egyptian port of Al-Arich, some 50 kilometres from the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.