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British-Palestinian Doctor Denied Entry to France for Senate Meeting about War in Gaza

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
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British-Palestinian Doctor Denied Entry to France for Senate Meeting about War in Gaza

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)

A well-known British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals said he was denied entry to France on Saturday to speak at a French Senate meeting about the Israel-Hamas war. Authorities wouldn't give a reason for the decision.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone in the Charles de Gaulle airport and will be expelled, according to French Sen. Raymonde Poncet Monge, who had invited him to speak at the Senate.

“It’s a disgrace,” she posted on X.

Abu Sitta posted on social networks that he was denied entry in France because of a one-year ban by Germany on his entry to Europe. Germany denied him entry last month, and France and Germany are part of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone. He posted Saturday that he was being sent back to London.

The French Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, local police and the Paris airport authority would not comment on what happened or give an explanation.

Abu Sitta had been invited by France’s left-wing Ecologists group in the Senate to speak at a colloquium Saturday about the situation in Gaza, according to the Senate press service. The gathering included testimony from medics, journalists and international legal experts with Gaza-related experience.

Last month Abu Sitta was denied entry to Germany to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference. He said he was stopped at passport control, held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK. He said airport police told him he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order.”

Abu Sitta, who recently volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, has worked during multiple conflicts in the Palestinian territories, beginning in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

France has seen tensions related to the Mideast conflict almost daily since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel. In recent days and weeks police have cleared out students at French campuses holding demonstrations and sit-ins similar to those in the United States.

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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Has Defended Its Independence on Fourth Anniversary of War 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, January 25, 2026. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, January 25, 2026. (Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Has Defended Its Independence on Fourth Anniversary of War 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, January 25, 2026. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the Presidential Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, January 25, 2026. (Reuters)

Ukraine has defended its independence since Russia's invasion and will not betray the sacrifices made by its people as it seeks peace, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.

"Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainian people. He has not won this war," Zelenskiy said on Tuesday. "We have ‌preserved Ukraine, and ‌we will do everything to achieve ‌peace. ⁠And to ensure ⁠justice."

Zelenskiy is due to welcome dignitaries from European allies, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv later in the day for ceremonies four years on from Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers ⁠on both sides have died or been ‌wounded in Europe's ‌deadliest conflict since World War Two. Russian forces have killed ‌tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and destroyed ‌Ukrainian cities with years of missiles and drone strikes.

Ongoing peace talks with Russia, brokered by the United States, appear to have stalled over the question of territory.

Moscow, ‌which is advancing slowly on the battlefield, has refused to drop its insistence ⁠that ⁠Ukraine cede the final 20% of the eastern region of Donetsk, while Kyiv is adamant it will not relinquish land that thousands have died to defend.

"We want peace. Strong, dignified, lasting peace," Zelenskiy said in his address.

He added that he had told Ukraine's peace negotiators: "Do not nullify all these years, do not devalue all the struggle, courage, dignity, everything that Ukraine has gone through. We cannot, we must not, give it away, forget it, betray it."

World

Iranian Military Helicopter Crashes into Fruit Market, Four Dead

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iranian Military Helicopter Crashes into Fruit Market, Four Dead

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)

An Iranian Army helicopter crashed into a fruit market in the central province of Isfahan on Tuesday, killing the pilot, co-pilot and two ‌merchants, state media ‌reported.

The helicopter came ‌down ⁠in the city ⁠of Dorcheh, causing a fire that was put out by emergency services, the ⁠reports added.

Experts say ‌Iran ‌has a poor ‌air safety record, ‌with repeated crashes, many involving aircraft bought before the 1979 Iranian Revolution ‌and lacking original spare parts for maintenance.

Last ⁠week, ⁠a US-built F-4 fighter belonging to Iran's regular air force crashed in the western province of Hamadan, killing one pilot during a training flight.

World

London Police Arrest Former Ambassador Peter Mandelson in Epstein Case

Former UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, is pictured as he leaves his residence in central London on February 21, 2026. (AFP)
Former UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, is pictured as he leaves his residence in central London on February 21, 2026. (AFP)
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London Police Arrest Former Ambassador Peter Mandelson in Epstein Case

Former UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, is pictured as he leaves his residence in central London on February 21, 2026. (AFP)
Former UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, is pictured as he leaves his residence in central London on February 21, 2026. (AFP)

London police on Monday arrested former ambassador Peter Mandelson over claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

“He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, February 23, and has been taken to a London police station for interview,” the Met added.

The man was not named, in keeping with British police practice.

BBC News and Sky News broadcasted footage of Mandelson leaving his central London home accompanied by plainclothes officers wearing body cameras, before being driven away in a car.

The arrest of Mandelson, a former Labour peer, came only four days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles III's younger brother, was detained and released under investigation in a separate misconduct in public office probe also related to the latest Epstein documents.

Mountbatten-Windsor - formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York - has been investigated for allegedly sharing confidential documents while serving as the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment between 2001 and 2011.

Emails between Mandelson and Epstein, released by the US Department of Justice in late January, showed the two men had a closer relationship than had been publicly known, and Mandelson had shared information with the financier when he was a minister in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government in 2009.

Mandelson, who this month resigned from Starmer's Labour Party and quit his position in parliament's upper chamber, has previously said he “very deeply” regretted his association with Epstein. But he has not commented publicly or responded to messages seeking comment on the latest revelations.

Mandelson's homes in London and west England were searched by police earlier this month.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has faced calls to step down over Mandelson's appointment, faces further scrutiny after parliament ordered the release of documents relating to his vetting. A minister said on Monday that the first documents should be published in early March.

The prime minister has apologized to Epstein’s victims for choosing Mandelson. Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, quit earlier this month, saying he took responsibility for advising Starmer to name Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US despite his known links to Epstein.