The French Foreign Ministry has announced that Paris had summoned an Israeli government envoy over an "intrusion" at the country's cultural centre by the police in east Jerusalem.
Paris has slammed Israel's actions as a "serious and unacceptable infringement to the functioning of our cultural network in Jerusalem."
According to the AFP news agency, citing a diplomatic source, the French consul general in Jerusalem had immediately voiced protest over police's entry to the cultural centre, with an event involving a women's group suspected by Israel of being financed by the Palestinian Authority reportedly being the reason for such a rare move.
In its turn, the Israeli Foreign Ministry stated that the country's charge d'affairs had voiced protest at the meeting concerning the alleged Palestinian Authority's funding and support to the event held at the French Institute in Jerusalem.
At the meeting, Tel Aviv made it clear that it would not agree to the "holding of PA events in Jerusalem," stressing that "any activity of a diplomatic or governmental nature by the PA is prohibited" in areas where the authority has not been assigned control, according to the Israeli agreements with the Palestinians.
The claim that the women's group's event was funded by the Palestinians hasn't yet been confirmed by Paris, while AFP cited an unnamed Palestinian source denying the allegation.