Hungary’s prime minister-elect Péter Magyar has said that Benjamin Netanyahu would have to be detained if he entered Hungarian territory while still subject to an International Criminal Court warrant, marking a sharp break with Viktor Orbán’s position.
Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Péter Magyar, has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be arrested if he travels to Hungary, because Budapest remains bound by its obligations as a member of the International Criminal Court. Magyar, whose Tisza party won Hungary’s parliamentary election this month, told reporters in Budapest that if a person wanted by the ICC entered the country, “that person must be taken into custody”.
The remark is significant because it signals a likely reversal of the line taken by outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. When Netanyahu visited Budapest in April 2025, Orbán’s government refused to act on the ICC warrant and simultaneously announced that Hungary would leave the court. That withdrawal, however, does not take effect until 2 June 2026, meaning Hungary is still formally a state party to the Rome Statute and remains under an obligation to cooperate with the court until then.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant on 21 November 2024. The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the Gaza conflict. Israel has rejected the allegations and challenged the court’s jurisdiction.
Western governments reacted unevenly when the warrants were issued. Some states said they would respect the court’s decisions as part of their treaty obligations, while others criticised what they saw as an equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Hungary under Orbán was among the most openly hostile to the court’s move, inviting Netanyahu to Budapest despite the warrant. Magyar’s latest comments therefore point to a possible reorientation in Hungarian foreign policy, at least on questions of international legal compliance.
Whether Netanyahu would actually test that position remains unclear. But Magyar’s statement has made one point plain: if his government takes office as expected in May, Hungary may again align itself with the legal duties it accepted as an ICC member.
Netanyahu Visits Hungary as Budapest Announces Withdrawal from ICC
