By James Mackenzie
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the enclave.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made clear when he issued the invitation that Hungary would not respect the ruling.
Netanyahu, who is battling a political storm at home over an investigation into suspected ties between Qatar and three of his aides, is due to meet Orban ahead of a press conference at around 1000 GMT.
Netanyahu has rejected the accusations regarding his aides as “fake news”. A Qatari official has dismissed the accusations as part of a “smear campaign” against Qatar.
In Budapest, workers were constructing a stage in the Buda Castle on Wednesday, where Orban was scheduled to welcome Netanyahu in a ceremony with military honours on Thursday morning and security forces could be seen near the central Budapest hotel where Netanyahu will be staying.
The visit will be only the second he has made abroad since the International Criminal Court issued warrants to arrest both him and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last November, but details of his programme have been limited apart from a planned visit to a Holocaust memorial.
He visited Washington in February to meet close ally U.S. President Donald Trump. Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC, with Washington arguing the ICC could be used for politically motivated prosecutions.
Orban invited Netanyahu to visit a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel launched an offensive following a devastating attack by thousands of Hamas fighters, that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip, triggering protests worldwide and prompting South Africa to launch separate legal action in the International Court of Justice, a different body to the ICC, accusing Israel of genocide.
‘COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE’
Israel has rejected all the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism. It says the International Criminal Court has lost all legitimacy by issuing the warrants against a democratically elected leader of a country exercising the right of self defence.
Orban has echoed Israel’s condemnation of the court, describing its decision to issue the warrants as “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable”.
The ICC said in a statement that member states were under a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, adding that it is not for the states to determine the soundness of its legal decisions.
When it issued the warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, whose death was confirmed after the warrant was issued.
Prosecutors had originally also sought to arrest Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who along with Deif masterminded the October 7 attack on Israel in 2023. Both were killed by Israel before the request was approved.
The visit takes place as Israel has expanded its military operation in Gaza, announcing its intention to seize parts of the enclave to include in a security zone and evacuate large numbers of Palestinians, with the aim of pressuring Hamas into handing over 59 hostages still in Gaza.
(This story has been refiled to remove an erroneous story link in paragraph 6)
(Additional reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Anita Komuves; Editing by Alison Williams)
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