The International Criminal Court (ICC) sent a request to the Hungarian government to arrest and surrender Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to its detention center in The Hague, due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the court last year, it emerged on Sunday.
According to a report by Channel 12 news, the surrender request was sent several hours after Netanyahu landed in the country on Thursday, but the Hungarian government refused to comply, and promptly announced it was quitting the ICC.
In May 2024, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested from the court that it approve arrest warrants against Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court approved the request in November 2024 and rejected Israeli appeals against them.
The warrants accuse the Israeli leader of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using starvation as a method of warfare by hindering the supply of international aid to Gaza, during the current conflict with Hamas, which began with the terror organization’s onslaught against Israel on October 7, 2023.
ICC warrants require all member states of the court to detain and surrender the subject of the order to The Hague.
Netanyahu and the government have strongly rejected the allegations, pointing to efforts to facilitate the passage of large amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza during the war, and insisting that the IDF does not deliberately target civilians.
The Supreme Court, acting in its capacity as the High Court of Justice, ruled last month that organizations that petitioned the court to order the government to increase the supply of aid to Gaza had “not even come close” to showing that Israel had violated legal prohibitions on starving a civilian population as a tool of war or as a form of collective punishment.
In the document sent to the Hungarian government on Thursday, the ICC wrote that its surrender request was “confidential” in order to enable the arrest to be executed. ICC arrest and surrender procedures are often kept secret in order to maximize the possibility of arresting the subject of a warrant.
The document also featured Netanyahu’s personal details, including place and date of birth, and the allegations against him.
“The Registrar requests the cooperation of Hungary to: Provisionally arrest the following person [Netanyahu] when the opportunity to do so arises in the event that he is present on their territory,” the arrest and surrender request stated.
The Hungarian government announced its decision to withdraw from the ICC several hours after Netanyahu arrived.
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