The appeal trial of a French sports journalist jailed in Algeria on accusations of "glorifying terrorism" has been scheduled for December 3, his lawyer said Friday.

A contributor to the magazines So Foot and Society, Christophe Gleizes, 36, was sentenced in late June to seven years in prison.

"The case of French journalist Christophe Gleizes is scheduled for December 3, 2025, at the criminal appeal court in Tizi Ouzou," 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of Algiers, his lawyer, Amirouche Bakouri, said on Facebook.

With Gaza's education system shattered by two years of gruelling war, UNICEF's regional director says he fears for a "lost generation" of children wandering ruined streets with nothing to do.

"This is the third year that there has been no school," Edouard Beigbeder, the UN agency's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, told AFP in Jerusalem on Thursday after returning from the Palestinian territory.

"If we don't start a real transition for all children in February, we will enter a fourth year. And then we can talk about a lost generation."

The UN's health agency pleaded Friday for thousands of people in desperate need of medical care to be allowed to leave Gaza, in what it said would be a "game-changer".

The World Health Organization has supported the medical evacuation of nearly 7,800 patients out of the Gaza Strip since the war with Israel began two years ago -- and estimates there are 15,000 people currently needing treatment outside the Palestinian territory.

Spain's top criminal court said Friday it had opened an investigation into executives at steelmaker Sidenor for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide for trading with an Israeli arms company.

Spain, one of the fiercest critics of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, said it had stopped exchanging weapons with the country after the conflict started with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio voiced hope Friday of soon putting together an international force to police the ceasefire in Gaza, as Palestinian factions agreed that a committee of independent technocrats would run the post-war territory.

The secretary of state visited Israel on the heels of Vice President JD Vance as part of an all-out effort by the United States to persuade both Hamas and Israel to respect the truce.

Rubio said it was critical for the deal to create "the conditions for the stabilisation force to come in as soon as it possibly can be put together".

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's High Court is investigating privately-owned steelmaker Sidenor for allegedly selling steel to an Israeli firm for the purpose of making weapons, it said on Friday, in one of the first potential legal consequences of Spain's ban on such deals.

Judge Francisco de Jorge is leading the investigation targeting Sidenor's CEO Jose Antonio Jainaga Gomez and two other executives for alleged smuggling and complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide, according to the statement.

They were summoned to testify on November 12.

After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris and three quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analysed by AFP.

The fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which came into effect on October 10 under pressure from US President Donald Trump, opens the way for the reconstruction of the devastated territory.

This will require managing the immense amount of rubble.

- 170 Empire State Buildings -

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -At least 14 people drowned when a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey's western province of Mugla on Friday, the local governor's office said, adding that a search and rescue operation was underway for possible survivors.

In a statement, the Mugla Governor's Office said an Afghan man who survived the disaster and swam back to the mainland had raised the alarm shortly after 1:00 a.m.

They were freed in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but instead of going home, 154 Palestinian ex-prisoners were exiled to Egypt, where they are confined to a hotel and kept under tight surveillance.

All of them had been sentenced by Israeli military court to life in prison on charges of murder, belonging to Palestinian militant groups banned by Israel, and other acts of violence.

By Andrew MacAskill, Alexander Cornwell and Maayan Lubell

KIRYAT GAT, Israel (Reuters) -In a squat, grey building that normally operates as a cargo hub in an industrial area of southern Israel, U.S. troops have begun the complex task of monitoring Gaza's fragile ceasefire and planning an international force to stabilise the enclave.

The U.S. military announced this week that about 200 troops with expertise in transport, planning, security and engineering had started monitoring the ceasefire and would organise the flow of aid and security assistance to Gaza.