Screenshot: French reporter Alice Froussard. Israeli authorities banned her from entering the country, citing her social media activity.
RFI, part of France's public broadcasting corporation, and Radio France condemned the ban in separate statements as "an obstacle to press freedom" and expressed support for the journalist.
Froussard was refused entry after landing on Wednesday afternoon at Tel Aviv's international airport, where she was forced to spend the night before being sent back to Paris on a flight that took off Thursday morning.
"RFI journalist Alice Froussard was denied entry into Israeli territory... even though she had the required travel authorisation and had duly applied for a press visa to work in the West Bank," RFI wrote in a statement.
"Israeli authorities have not provided RFI with any justification for this decision," the statement added.
Froussard, 33, has covered news in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories as a freelancer for several news outlets since 2019.
She had recently alternated between months-long stints on the ground and time in France because of difficulty obtaining a long-term Israeli visa.
Radio France news director Agnes Vahramian called the journalist's deportation "deeply troubling," decrying "an obstruction of press freedom, in a context where access on the ground is already severely restricted."
RFI said its "management fully supports Alice Froussard and protests against this expulsion, which constitutes an obstruction of press freedom and comes at a time when journalists are facing increasing difficulties" in the region.
The French foreign ministry said: "We regret this decision, which nevertheless falls within the sovereignty of Israeli authorities."
The ministry also affirmed its "support for press freedom and for the free and safe practice of the profession".
Froussard's deportation comes two days after France announced an entry ban against Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
French authorities have accused Smotrich of promoting the annexation of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The RFI's journalists association voiced "support for a colleague who, with rigor and courage, has been recounting the lives of Palestinians for six years."
In their announcement of the ban, Israeli occupation authorities shared screenshots of Froussard's social media posts, which described Israel's war on Gaza as a "massacre" and the West Bank occupation as "apartheid."
The Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, called the Israeli claims "outrageous".
"This is not the first case in which the Israeli government decides that the journalistic coverage is 'one-sided'," the FPA added, calling on the government to reverse its decision.
Israel ranks 116th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) -- down four places from 2025.
RSF notes that "pluralism, media independence and press freedom have increasingly tightened in Israel" since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed 259 media workers and journalists, mostly in Gaza but also in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that promotes press freedom worldwide.
The group called the action against Froussard "unjustifiable" and said it was an attempt "to deprive international public opinion of information coming out of Palestine."
Israel has banned all journalists from enetering Gaza since the start of the its genocidal war on the strip in October 2023. In tandem, the Israeli occupation army has killed nearly 270 Palestinian journalists reporting on its war crimes during the war.
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