France has suspended all evacuations from Gaza while it investigates how a student accused of sharing violently antisemitic content online was allowed to enter the country and enrol at a top university.
The move comes after officials said the female student from Gaza will have to leave France after the Sciences Po university in the northern city of Lille revoked her accreditation over the online posts.
"No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn conclusions from this investigation," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told Franceinfo radio on Friday.
All Gazans who have entered France will undergo a second screening, he added.
France has helped more than 500 people leave Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023, including wounded children, journalists, students and artists.
The conflict, triggered by Hamas's deadly 7 October attack on Israel, has seen Israel retaliate with a military campaign and an aid blockade in Gaza that some rights groups have qualified as "genocide".
Hamas is designated a terrorist group by both the EU and the US.
Thousands of patients need to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says
Antisemitic posts
Lille's chief prosecutor said on Thursday a probe had been opened against the student for “apology of terrorism, apology of crimes against humanity using an online public communication service".
Screenshots of posts the student allegedly shared in September – published by pro-Israel accounts on X – include an image of Adolf Hitler and words appearing to call for the death of Jews.
Some of the posts “come into direct contradiction with the values upheld by Sciences Po Lille, which fights against all forms of racism, antisemitism and discrimination, as well as against any type of incitement to hatred, against any population whatsoever,” the university said in a post on X.
The account attributed to the student has been taken offline, on the instructions of French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Barrot said the screening carried out by the relevant departments of the ministries concerned "clearly did not work”.
"She must leave the country", the foreign minister confirmed, adding that discussions were ongoing to determine where she would be sent.
According to a French diplomatic source, the student arrived in France on 11 July on a scholarship based on "academic excellence" and after "security checks".
She was offered a place at Sciences Po Lille university following a recommendation by the French consulate in Jerusalem, the establishment said.
(with newswires)
