French Ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot on Tuesday attended a special session of the parliament's Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, condemning Monday's slaying of four Jews at a school in southern France' Toulouse as "barbaric act" and "crime against humanity."

Experts from the Prime Minister's Counter-terrorism Bureau were also present during the discussion of the incident, Army radio said.

"In all sectors of French society, there is a strong feeling of shock and of empathy for the family of the victims and for the Jewish community of Toulouse," Bigot told the Times of Israel website.

While Bigot noted a French Jewish security report indicating the number of anti-Semitic attacks were at the lowest point in a decade, he added that "today's event completely changes the picture and it shows that it is an everlasting fight against these mad and barbaric people."

Security authorities in France's Interior Ministry and the security counterparts in the United States immediately heightened security measures around Jewish schools, community centers and synagogues, fearing what a New York security official said were potential copycat attacks.

A French military plane will fly the bodies of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, his two sons Gabriel and Arie, and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonegoto to Israel for burial on Wednesday.

Israeli officials on Tuesday slammed remarks by European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton, who seemed to compare the Toulouse killings to the death of Palestinian children in Gaza by the Israeli army and other mass murders of children.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Ashton's remarks " inappropriate", made at a Brussels conference entitled "Palestine Refugees in the changing Middle East" in Brussels.

"When we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world - we remember young people and children who lose their lives," Ashton said.

Lieberman, currently on a visit to China, responded to the remarks, saying, "I hope that Ashton reexamines and retracts them, " adding that, "Israel is the most moral country in the world, despite having to fight terrorists operating from within a civilian population. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are doing everything it can to not hurt that population even though it is defending terrorists."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that, "the comparison made by Ashton between what is happening in Gaza to what happened in Toulouse, and what is going on in Syria every day, is outrageous and has absolutely no grounds in reality. The IDF operates in Gaza with great care and precision in order to protect the lives of innocents. I hope that Catherine Ashton quickly realizes her mistake and rethinks her comments."