The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported on Wednesday that the unnamed reserve soldier was "prevented from entering the Czech Republic after authorities claimed that France had issued a criminal warning against him, even though he had never visited it," according to the newspaper.
The newspaper reported that the soldier had traveled to Prague for a vacation with his wife after months of "military service," but that he was "treated like a criminal and forced to return to Israel after a 15-hour ordeal."
According to the same source, the incident began when four police officers approached the couple while checking their passports at Václav Havel Airport and informed them that the soldier was not allowed to enter.
The newspaper added that the investigation revealed that the French warning covers the entire Schengen area, preventing his entry into all member states, noting that the Israeli Foreign Ministry intervened but claimed that the reason "has nothing to do with his military service."
The soldier said that Czech authorities informed him that France was accusing him of involvement in serious crimes, suggesting that "the warning was related to his reserve service."
He reported that he and his wife contacted the Tel Aviv embassy in Paris to no avail, before they were forced to buy return tickets to Israel the following morning.
The newspaper reported that the case raised concerns among Israelis traveling to Europe about the possibility of bureaucratic errors or misuse of international databases.
The incident comes amid international legal proceedings against Israeli soldiers who participated in the war on Gaza, as human rights organizations file cases in European courts accusing them of war crimes based on videos and photos published by the soldiers themselves during military operations.
During the two years of war on the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Israeli soldiers posted videos and photos boasting about the killing, destruction, and torture they carried out against civilians and infrastructure in Gaza.
On October 10, Hamas and Israel reached an agreement on a prisoner exchange and a ceasefire, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, and sponsored by US President Donald Trump, as part of a plan he developed that includes several stages.
Since October 8, 2023, the Israeli genocide, with American support, has left more than 68,531 Palestinian martyrs and 170,402 wounded, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning.
Israel also killed more than 9,500 Palestinians whose bodies are still under the rubble, and caused destruction to 90% of civilian infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at around $70 billion.
