ISRAELI authorities deported a prominent French journalist on Thursday, after refusing entry upon her landing at the country’s main international airport the day before, her employer said.

Alice Froussard, who has worked for years in Israel and the Palestinian territories, arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from Paris on Wednesday, according to public news network Radio France Internationale, for which she often reports.

Ms Froussard had the required travel authorisation and had applied for a press visa to work in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, RFI said. But when she arrived, Ms Froussard was questioned, held and then sent back to France.

“Israeli authorities have not provided RFI with any explanation for the decision,” the network said in a statement.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said the decision to deport Ms Froussard “falls within the sovereign authority of the Israeli authorities.”

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said it had recommended Ms Froussard be denied entry over her critical coverage of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank, including use of the word “apartheid” to describe government policies toward Palestinians.

In a social media post, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, wrote: “I am pleased to announce that at this very moment, Alice Froussard, a French journalist who supports Hamas and who claims that the October 7 massacre must be viewed ‘in context,’ is making her way from Ben Gurion Airport back to Paris.”

The Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists who work in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called the allegations against Ms Froussard “outrageous.”

Since Hamas and its allies attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, during which 1,139 people were killed and 251 people were abducted, Israeli forces have killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and 259 media workers and journalists, mostly in Gaza but also in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.