Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary on Thursday, Hungarian Defence Ministry head Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on his Facebook page.
“We welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest,” the minister wrote.
According to the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, the Israeli prime minister came at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán and will stay in the country until Sunday.
The Times of Israel wrote that this is Netanyahu’s first trip since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him. “Hungary is expected to announce its withdrawal from the ICC during Netanyahu’s visit,” the media said.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Galant on November 21, six months after a request by prosecutor Karim Khan. According to the judges, both “intentionally and knowingly” deprived civilians living in the Gaza Strip of access to basic necessities, including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity, without military necessity, resulting in civilian deaths.
Earlier in February, then-candidate for chancellor of the conservative CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) bloc Friedrich Merz invited Netanyahu to visit Germany in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
Also in February, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions against the ICC because of the court’s actions against the US and its allies, including Israel.
