JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Hungary on April 2, his office said on Sunday, defying an International Criminal Court ( ICC ) arrest warrant issued over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
During his visit, Netanyahu is set to hold conversations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other top Romanian officials before returning to Israel on April 6.
Orban extended an invitation to Netanyahu despite the ICC’s arrest subpoena issued last month.
One day after the ICC selection in November, Netanyahu thanked Orban for his present of “moral quality” in extending the offer.
Netanyahu’s office at the time published what it said was a letter from Orban in which the Hungarian leading denounced the ICC selection as a” shameful” walk.
The ICC issued permits for Netanyahu and former military secretary Yoav Gallant over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including hunger as a method of war, in Israel’s warfare against Hamas in Gaza.
The battle was sparked by the militant Palestinian parties attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the global treaty that created the ICC, in 1999 and ratified it two years later during Orban’s second term in office.
But, Budapest has no promulgated the related protocol for reasons of legality and thus asserts it is not obliged to comply with ICC choices.
