Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), will visit Hungary next month.

Hungarian State Minister Gergely Gulyas announced that Netanyahu will visit the country before April 20 upon the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Israel’s Channel 12 television mentioned the risk of Netanyahu’s arrest. Despite the invitation, it was reported that there was no way for Netanyahu to reach Hungary without crossing the airspace of other countries that have signed the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC. The visit to Hungary will be Netanyahu’s first European visit after the ICC’s arrest warrant. Despite Hungary being one of the signatories of the Rome Statute, Orban openly accused the ICC of “politically intervening in an ongoing conflict” due to the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and clearly expressed that Netanyahu would be allowed to come to Hungary. The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for NETANYAHU AND GALLANT The ICC had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

The court had also rejected Israel’s objections to the ICC’s jurisdiction, ruling that it has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestinian territories. Israeli soldiers who went to the Netherlands were also forced to leave the country out of fear of being arrested for war crimes in Gaza.