Diplomatic scandal between Italy and Israel. Two carabinieri were threatened with a gun in the West Bank

The head of Italian diplomacy, Antonio Tajani, summoned Israel's ambassador to Rome to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after two Italian Carabinieri who work at the Italian consulate general in Jerusalem were threatened on Sunday by a man, most likely a settler, in the West Bank, ANSA reports on Monday, taken over by Agerpres.

The Italian Foreign Ministry informed that the ambassador was summoned to ask him for clarifications and to confirm Rome's “firm protest” against Sunday's incident.

Earlier on Monday, the ministry announced that the Italian embassy in Tel Aviv sent an official verbal note of protest to the Israeli government.

The two Italian military personnel were on a field inspection visit to prepare a mission of EU ambassadors to a village near Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority, the ministry said in a statement.

The carabinieri were threatened by an armed man in civilian clothes, most likely an Israeli settler, who pointed an automatic rifle at them.

The Italian soldiers, who had traveled in a car with diplomatic numbers and had diplomatic passports on them, were “interrogated” by the civilian. Given the instructions they received, they did not respond to the initial threats with violence. The man put them in contact by phone with an unidentified person, who told them that they were inside a military zone and that they had to leave.

Verification undertaken with COGAT (the Israeli military command for the Occupied Palestinian Territories) confirmed that there is no military zone at the site.

The two soldiers returned safely to the consulate headquarters and reported the incident to the embassy and the Carabinieri chain of command.

Italian government sources said the alleged Israeli settler forced the carabinieri to kneel at gunpoint.