France's foreign ministry said it had summoned Israel's ambassador on Tuesday to tell him that an incident in Jerusalem that saw armed Israeli security forces entering a property administered by France should never be repeated.
Two French security officials with diplomatic status were briefly detained on Nov. 7 after Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of The Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives. The site is under Paris' responsibility and it was not the first time that problems have arisen over France's historic holdings in the Holy City.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement the ambassador had been told the presence of armed Israeli security forces and the arrest of the French officials at the site were "unacceptable," especially between allies with strong ties.
"Measures will be put in place to ensure that such acts do not recur," it said without elaborating.
Israel's foreign ministry has said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been "clarified in advance in the preparatory dialog with the French Embassy in Israel."