The International Criminal Court (ICC) sent a request to the Hungarian government to arrest and make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his detention center in The Hague, due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the court last year, he emerged on Sunday.
According to a Channel 12 News report, the request for a discount was sent several hours after Netanyahu landed in the country on Thursday, but the Hungarian government refused to comply and quickly announced that it had left the ICC.
In May 2024, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, asked court that he approved the arrest warrants against Netanyahu, then the Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court approved the request in November 2024 and rejected Israeli calls against them.
The mandates accuse the Israeli chief of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using famine as a method of war by hampering the supply of international aid to Gaza, during the current conflict with Hamas, which began with the assault of the terrorist organization against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The CPI mandates require that all the member states of the Court hold and put the subject of the ordinance to the Hague.
Netanyahu and the government firmly rejected allegations, highlighting efforts to facilitate the passage of large quantities of humanitarian aid in Gaza during the war and insist that the FDI does not deliberately target civilians.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are greeted by a military guard of honor on April 3, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. (Attila kisbenedek / AFP)
The Supreme Court, acting in its capacity as a high court of justice, ruled last month that the organizations that asked the Court to order the government to increase the supply of aid to Gaza had not even approached “to show that Israel had violated legal prohibitions of hunger of a civilian population as a war tool or as a form of collective sanction.
In the document sent to the Hungarian government on Thursday, the ICC wrote that its request for a discount was “confidential” in order to allow the execution of the arrest. The arrest and delivery procedures of the ICC are often kept secret in order to maximize the possibility of stopping the subject of a mandate.
The document also featured Netanyahu’s personal details, including the place and date of birth, and allegations against him.
“The registrar requests the cooperation of Hungary: provisionally stop the next person (Netanyahu) when the opportunity to do is present in the event of presentation on its territory.” The request for arrest and surrender indicated.
The Hungarian government has announced its decision to withdraw from the ICC several hours after Netanyahu’s arrival.
