President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday launched a major operation against drug trafficking in Marseille and other French cities, saying that gangland battles that last year left dozens dead had made life a misery for residents.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Marseille to launch an operation against drug trafficking.

On a visit to the southern port city that this year will host some Paris 2024 Olympics events, Macron said almost 100 people had been detained in the first raids.

"In Marseille and other cities in France, we have launched an unprecedented operation to put a stop to drug trafficking and ensure republican order," Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after arriving in the city.

He said that operations would be launched in about 10 French cities. Macron added that it would be an "XXL" cleanup.

Marseille has been particularly badly hit in turf wars for control of lucrative drug dealing across France. Some 49 people were killed and 123 people injured in drug related violence in 2023. Four of the dead were caught in the crossfire of gun battles.

As part of the crackdown, some 4,000 police will be mobilised in Marseille and surrounding areas for the next three weeks, according to a source close to the issue.

About 900 were stationed in the city on Monday for the start of an operation that resulted in 98 arrests in two days, with 71 people taken into custody and four guns seized, the police prefecture said.

The prefecture said that 385,000 euros ($420,000) in cash and 8.7 kilogrammes (19.1 pounds) of cannabis and 339 grams of cocaine were seized.

Macron told residents in the northern district of La Castellane, one of the worst hit areas, that the operation will "try to destroy the networks and the traffickers".

- 'Growing scourge' -

"Drug trafficking is a growing scourge" and "the situation is very difficult" in Marseille and other cities, Macron said.

Macron toured districts that have a large Muslim population, and he found that the wars in Gaza and Ukraine came up as much as drug issues. Some residents urged France to do more for Palestinians.

"We have given all the means necessary to Ukraine to defend its rights. Today, what are we doing for Palestine, Mr Macron?" Ahmed Said, 35, told the president.

One woman tearfully told the president that she could not sleep because of the fate of the Palestinian children in Gaza. Macron replied: "I share your distress and I have heard it." He said that the scope of Israel's military operations in Gaza had become "unacceptable".

The Gaza war broke out after the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's relentless military response against Hamas has killed at least 31,800 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Macron warned that the conflict "should not give rise to any hatred within" France.

- 'Asymmetrical war' -

He was in turn warned that sending police reinforcements to Marseille would not end the city's troubles.

"Sending them here won't make any difference," one youth told the president.

Violence has eased in recent weeks but could erupt again at any moment, said Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone.

One alleged leader of a Marseille gang was arrested in Morocco last week.

Felix Bingui, 33, was detained in the port city of Casablanca.

Bingui is believed to be the leader of Yoda, a drug gang that has been battling the rival DZ Mafia gang.

"Narcotics crimes in Marseille are a kind of gangrene that damages the social fabric," Marseille's top judge Olivier Leurent said earlier this month.

Tackling the issue is all the more important for French authorities as Marseille will be a key Olympics venue.

Marseille will host the Olympic sailing events and some football matches will be held in the city.

No congratulations from France’s Macron to Putin for his re-election

French President Emmanuel Macron will not send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him for his landslide re-election on Sunday, in a vote that France and other western countries said was neither free, nor fair.

Exit polls indicate that Putin won at least 87 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election that the France and other western countries have said was not free and fair because of the imprisonment of political opponents and shutting down of the opposition.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who received congratulations from Putin when he was re-elected in April 2022, will not be doing the same.

One cannot congratulate someone for an election “lined with the death of those who fought for pluralism in Russia,” Macron said in an interview with the Parisien newspaper published Saturday.

He said the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison and Putin’s banning of all opposition made the election impossible to recognise.

"France duly notes the expected result of the presidential election," the French Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement, which said the vote was not "free, pluralist and democratic".

Russain Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that those who voted at embassies in Paris and elsewhere were not opposition supporters.

Putin says he's open to Ukraine ceasefire during Paris Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine more than two years ago, has said that he is open to a ceasefire during the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed in an interview with Ukrainian television that Paris would ask Moscow to agree to a truce for the duration of the Games, set for July 26 to August 11.

In a press conference following his projected re-election on Sunday evening in a vote that was considered neither free nor fair, Putin said he so far not heard of such a proposal by Macron.

"In any case, we will always proceed from Russia's interests and the situation on the battlefield," explained the Kremlin leader.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in July and August as neutral athletes under strict conditions.

The IOC initially banned Russia and its ally Belarus from international sports events after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin said such restrictions would distort the meaning of the Olympic movement.

The war started during the United Nations-backed Olympic Truce period, a few days after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and ahead of Paralympics in the Chinese capital.

Moscow has repeatedly said it is open to negotiations to end the war under certain conditions, including being able to retain the large areas occupied in Ukraine and for Kiev to dissolve its army and renounce any ambitions to join NATO, demands that Kiev has rejected.