**LONDON**
Amnesty International on Thursday strongly condemned Hungary's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), describing it as a "betrayal of all victims of war crimes."
In a statement, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said leaders and officials from ICC member states must not undermine the ICC by meeting with Netanyahu or other ICC fugitives wanted by the Court.
Earlier on Thursday, Hungary announced its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, announced that the withdrawal process from the Hague-based court would begin today.
Hungary announced the decision shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Budapest on a four-day visit.
"By welcoming Netanyahu, Hungary is effectively giving a seal of approval to Israel’s genocide, namely the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in whole or in part in Gaza," said Callamard.
She added: "Hungary's purported withdrawal from the ICC is a brazen and futile attempt to evade international justice and to stymy the ICC’s work."
Callamard defined Orban's welcoming of Netanyahu as "harboring a wanted ICC fugitive."
She also underlined that the EU and all ICC member states "must urgently" call on Hungary to arrest and surrender Netanyahu and firmly commit to defending the Court from insidious threats to international justice which a visit of this kind represents.
"Its withdrawal is a betrayal of all victims of war crimes and undermines the protections afforded the Hungarian people, as it removes, in a year, their opportunity to seek justice at the ICC for crimes committed against them," read the statement.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, where more than 50,500 people have been killed, mostly women and children, in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.
Netanyahu's visit to Hungary is his first to European soil since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November last year.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu and hand him over to the ICC.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.
[Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. **Please contact us for subscription options.**](https://www.aa.com.tr/en/p/subscription/1001)