France condemned the brief detention of two consulate members after it said Israeli police forced their way into a French-owned holy site in Jerusalem, in what is the latest diplomatic spat in a series of events that have sent relations between the two plummeting.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the French-owned Eleona church compound, which houses a sanctuary, on Thursday when the incident occurred.
Armed Israeli officers entered the site without authorization, France’s Foreign Ministry said, arresting the two consulate staff members “despite the fact that they are officials with diplomatic status” and prompting Barrot to abandon his visit.
The employees were later released following the intervention of the minister, France’s Foreign Ministry statement said.
In a separate statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said an argument arose between Israeli security forces and two French security guards “who refused to identify themselves.”
“The two were detained by the police and released immediately after identifying themselves as diplomats,” it said, adding that the Israeli security officers were accompanying the foreign minister on his official visit.
The Eleona church compound on the Mount of Olives is one of four French-owned sites in Jerusalem that make up the French national domain in the Holy Land and is administered by French authorities.
France’s Foreign Ministry said it would summon Israel’s ambassador in the coming days.
“This violation of the integrity of a site under French responsibility risks weakening the ties I had come to nurture with Israel at a time when we all need to move forward in the region on the path to peace,” Barrot told reporters while in Jerusalem.
Barrot was meeting with Israeli officials on Thursday where he urged for diplomatic solutions to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon amid repeated calls for a ceasefire, following spiraling international alarm over huge civilian casualties over the last year.
The visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries following calls by French President Emmanuel Macron to end arms exports to Israel for use in Gaza.
Relations between Israel and France, as well as other European countries, which had been initially strained over Gaza, have further deteriorated since Israel’s ground operation against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
European nations, including France, have expressed outrage over Israeli military strikes at posts of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL. Israel said it has no intention of harming the UN’s peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon but accused Hezbollah of using UNIFIL personnel as human shields.
Macron slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month of “sowing barbarism” in remarks at a conference convened by the French president to support the Lebanese people and military.
The French government also attempted to ban Israeli weapons firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris later this month, which was later reversed by a French court, Reuters reported.
In recent years, there have been several incidents between French officials and Israeli security officers at French-administered sites in Jerusalem.
In 2020, Macron was involved in an altercation with Israeli security officers while visiting the Church of Saint Anne, another territory it owns, where he was seen shouting “I don’t like what you did in front of me.”