Hungary’s government has announced it is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

A senior official in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, Gergely Gulyas, announced the move, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sought under an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in the country for a state visit.

Orban had invited the Israeli leader as soon as the warrant was issued last November, saying the ruling would have “no effect” in his country.

In November ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds” that Netanyahu bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu has condemned the ICC’s decision as “antisemitic”.

Hungary is a founding member of the ICC, which counts 125 member states. The United States, Russia, China and Israel do not recognise its jurisdiction, among other states.

The ICC has the authority to prosecute those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on the territory of states party to the Rome Statute, its founding treaty.

Israel rejects the ICC’s jurisdiction, but the court ruled in 2021 that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza because the UN’s secretary general had accepted the Palestinians were a member.

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