Hungary announced plans Thursday to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, hours after Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu — who is sought under an ICC arrest warrant that accuses him of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza — arrived there for a state visit.

“The government will initiate the withdrawal procedure on Thursday, in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said in a statement.

Orban, a right-wing leader who has promoted a style of government he calls “illiberal democracy,” has long had warm ties with Netanyahu. A day after the ICC issued the warrant in November, Orban invited Netanyahu to Budapest, promising that Hungary would not enforce the warrant, which he called politically motivated.

The ICC, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, is a court of last resort to prosecute people for crimes under international law, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, when other courts are not able to. Though the ICC itself has no means of arresting someone, the warrant requires the 125 countries that are party to the Rome Statute to carry out arrests if possible.

Israel is not party to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC, but the Palestinian territories joined the ICC in 2015, which the court asserts gives it jurisdiction over any crimes committed there, including in Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed Hungary’s decision Thursday and thanked Orban for “taking a clear, powerful, and moral stand alongside Israel.”

“The so-called ‘International Criminal Court’ has lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its eagerness to undermine Israel’s right to self-defense,” Saar wrote on X.

Netanyahu’s visit to the Hungarian capital Thursday was the Israeli leader’s second foreign trip since the ICC issued the warrant against him last year. In February, Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump in Washington.

When issuing the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last year, the ICC said there was reason to believe that the two used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas. Israeli officials denied the charges as “false and absurd.” The ICC also issued a warrant for a Hamas military leader, Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.

Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostage. Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, both during Orban’s first term as prime minister. However Orban, who returned to the premiership in 2010, indicated last year he would not honor an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, telling state radio last year that the court was “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp was quoted by Reuters as saying Thursday that Hungary was still obliged to comply with the ICC warrant. “The full process to withdraw from the ICC takes about a year, during that time Hungary will have to fulfill all its obligations to the court,” he said.

Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement earlier this week that “allowing Netanyahu’s visit in breach of Hungary’s ICC obligations would be Orban’s latest assault on the rule of law, adding to the country’s dismal record on rights.”

Orban’s decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute could, once again, put him at odds with other members of the European Union. All 27 members of the bloc, including Hungary, are signatories to the Rome Statute. However, numerous governments, including France and Germany, have indicated they would not arrest Netanyahu if he entered their country.

However, exiting the ICC would align Hungary with the United States, which never officially joined the court. The Clinton administration signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but did not submit it for Senate ratification. Former President George W. Bush, then withdrew the U.S. signature in 2002, the year the ICC was founded.

In an executive order issued on Feb. 7, President Donald Trump said he would impose sanctions on the court for its investigations into Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, suggesting it had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

Only two countries have previously withdrawn from the ICC: Burundi in 2017 and the Philippines in 2019.