MOSOW: Israel has revealed its former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was summoned for questioning by the Metropolitan Police for alleged war crimes which were committed against Palestinians in 2008-9.

The summons was issued Thursday, but was only made public three days later.

The summons was canceled after diplomatic talks were held between Israel and the UK, which ended in Livni’s visit to London acquiring the status of a "special diplomatic assignment,” Haaretz reported. This effectively granted her immunity from arrest and prosecution. She had been in Britain to attend a conference organized by the Israeli newspaper and the British Jewish Community.

Livni, who is now a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was wanted for questioning by British police regarding her role in possible war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008, as she was the foreign minister, vice prime minister and member of the diplomatic security cabinet at the time.

The summons provoked a furious response from opposition leader Isaac Herzog, leader of the Israeli Labour Party, who sent a strongly worded letter to British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond asking him to make sure that this incident would not be repeated in the future.

"In the context of the last few days, during which a 13-year old girl Israeli girl and a Rabbi were among those murdered by Palestinian terrorists  make a mockery of the British government's calls for unity in fighting radical Islamist terror," the letter read, as cited by the Jerusalem Post.

Abandoning normal diplomatic protocol, the UK opted to approach Livni directly, rather than going through the Israeli Embassy in London. After receiving the summons, the Israeli foreign minister informed her diplomatic mission, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Office and the Justice Ministry, Haaretz reports.