🇮🇱❌🇫🇷 Yesterday, Israel invaded French territory when it arrested two French gendarmes guarding the site of the Eleona Church, a Catholic church on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, officially, inside Palestinian jurisdiction.

The Eleona Church was commissioned by the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great in the early 4th century A.D. to commemorate the Ascension of Jesus Christ. It was destroyed by the Persians during the Byzantine-Sassanid wars and its ruins were lost until 1910 when they were rediscovered under the Church of Pater Noster, a French Carmelite covenant.

The covenant had been given to France after an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, agreement which was reaffirmed by the Fischer-Chauvel Agreement in 1949 when Israel recognised French jurisdiction over the site of the ancient Eleona Church and the modern temple.

French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, was due to visit the Church yesterday, when the incident happened, but cancelled his visit after hearing news of the incident. Barrot told reporters:

"I will not enter the Eleona domain today because Israeli security forces entered it armed without first obtaining authorization from France and without agreeing to leave today."

Recent information revealed by French diplomatic sources said that there was a prior agreement between Paris and Tel Aviv that no armed Israeli police units would be allowed to enter the site. The Israelis violated the terms by forcing their way through the French guards whom they detained and then pretended that they had no idea they were foreigners acting in accordance with diplomatic immunity.

Recently, French president, Emmanuel Macron, warned the Israelis to not turn Lebanon into a pile of rubble as they did in Gaza and had Israeli companies kicked out of France's two main military exhibitions, Euronaval and Eurosatory. Israeli officials vowed revenge.

@CIG_telegram