British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta denied entry into France

British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta said he has been prevented from entering France after a one-year ban imposed by the German authorities.

The star surgeon spent over 40 days treating injured Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza, and is vocal about the suffering in the enclave.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Abu Sitta said: “I am at Charles De Gaule airport. They are preventing me from entering France. I am supposed to speak at the French Senate today. They say the Germans put a 1 year ban on my entry to Europe.”

“Fortress Europe silencing the witnesses to the genocide while Israel kills them in prison,” he said in a following tweet.

The authorities are reportedly denying Abu Sitta an earlier flight back to London and “insisting” on sending him on the last flight back.

Last month, Abu Sitta, who is also the elected rector of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, was denied entry into Germany.

At the time, he said the German government “forcibly prevented” him from entering the country. He was due to speak at a conference in Berlin.

The conference, which was reported to be “pro-Palestinian,” was shut down. Abu Sitta would’ve highlighted the conditions at two prominent Gazan hospitals in his time spent working there, if the conference went ahead.

The 54-year-old has also previously testified to the UK police about the injuries he witnessed and the kinds of weapons used, as part of evidence gathered for an International Criminal Court probe.

Germany has mostly sided with Israel in the seven-months-long war that has killed over 1,200 Israelis and over 34,000 Palestinians.

The all-out war was triggered by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, who breached the Israeli border on October 7 and took over 200 hostages.