France will begin delivery of first aid equipment to Iraq "in the coming hours", the president's office said on Saturday.

President Francois Hollande assured the leader of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, by phone that the aid was on its way, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.

France, Britain and Germany on Saturday called on Israel and Hamas to agree on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, according to a joint declaration from the three countries' foreign ministries.

"We call upon all parties immediately to return to a cease-fire. We fully support the ongoing efforts by Egypt to this end," said the statement from foreign ministers Laurent Fabius of France, Philip Hammond of Britain and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany.

The first consignment of British aid to civilians sheltering in the Sinjar mountains of northern Iraq is expected to be dropped "imminently", Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Saturday.

However, he warned that aid drops were only a short-term solution and said officials were looking at how to help members of the minority Yazidi community who fled Islamic State extremists to a safer place.

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday, demanding Britain take a tougher line against Israel over its military assault on Gaza.

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said 150,000 people attended the march, the third major demonstration for Gaza in London in the past four weeks.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Cape Town on Saturday to protest Israel's military assault on Palestinians in Gaza, in one of the biggest rallies in the city since the end of apartheid.

Demonstrators carried posters stating "Israel is an apartheid state" and "Stop Israeli murder".

Tunisian coastguards on Saturday intercepted 90 African migrants whose makeshift boat heading from Libya for the Italian island of Lampedusa broke down off Zarzis, the Red Crescent said.

"At 0500 GMT the Tunisian coastguard rescued 90 African illegal migrants from a makeshift vessel after it broke down off Zarzis" in southern Tunisia, Red Crescent official Mongi Slim told Agence France Presse.

A seven-year blockade on the Gaza Strip must end to enable reconstruction and a political solution must be found to resolve the conflict, a U.N. official said on Saturday.

"Huge swathes of Gaza have been leveled. We cannot rebuild it with our hands tied behind our backs," said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Turkey's national flag-carrier airline said it resumed flights on Saturday to the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil after suspending them for security reasons amid an offensive by Islamist militants.

However Turkish Airlines said in a statement that it would as a continued precaution only be flying to Arbil in daytime hours.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways announced on Saturday that it will reroute flights over Iraq in the wake of U.S. air strikes on Islamist State (IS) fighters there.

"Etihad Airways has announced that it will reroute its flights to avoid conflict airspace in Iraq," a statement by the carrier said.

An Egyptian court on Saturday ordered the dissolution of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the already banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The decision follows the designation of the Brotherhood as a "terrorist organisation" in December, after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.