Oil prices jumped close to three percent in Asian trade on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies.

West Texas Intermediate was up 2.89 percent at $60.19 while Brent crude jumped 2.86 percent to $64.38.

China said Thursday it "opposes" recent sanctions slapped by the United States on Russia's two largest oil companies over Moscow's war in Ukraine, saying they had "no basis in international law".

At the same press conference, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun criticized sanctions on Russia agreed Wednesday by the European Union -- whose targets included Chinese companies -- insisting that "China is neither the creator of the Ukraine crisis nor a party to it".

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the Gaza ceasefire brokered by Washington could pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East.

Syria government forces launched an operation Wednesday against jihadists holed up in a camp in the northwest of the country, in a push to capture French fighters wanted by their government, a monitor and a French jihadist told AFP.

Security forces "launched a vast operation against the camp... to arrest French fighters wanted by their government," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that allied nations in the Middle East were prepared to send troops into Gaza to confront Hamas if the group did not cease its alleged violations of his peace plan.

"Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and 'straighten our (sic) Hamas' if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due in Doha late Tuesday as Ankara seeks to acquire some of Qatar's used Eurofighter Typhoon jets, a Turkish security source told AFP.

The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of 15 Palestinian bodies from Israel to Gaza as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, taking the total handed over to 165.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today facilitated the transfer of deceased Palestinians to authorities in Gaza.... Local health authorities in Gaza have confirmed the number of deceased received today is 15," the Red Cross said in a statement.

Egypt's intelligence head Hassan Rashad met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday for talks aimed at reinforcing a fragile US-backed ceasefire in Gaza.

The United Nations said Monday that its international staff held by Yemen's Houthi rebels after a raid on its Sanaa compound were now free to move inside and all five national staff released.

The European Union is leaving the door open to sanctioning Israel to maintain leverage to ensure the Gaza ceasefire deal is fully implemented, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Monday.