The Hungarian government said Thursday it has decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, a move that came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the country on an official visit.

There is an arrest warrant for Netanyahu from the International Criminal Court.

Viktor Orbán, Hungary's right-wing prime minister, invited his Israeli counterpart to Budapest last November, a day after a court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on charges of war crimes in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a military operation in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Israel has rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated and anti-Semitic. It also argues that the court has lost all legitimacy by issuing an arrest warrant for the democratically elected leader of a state exercising its right to self-defense.

Hungary is a founding member of the International Criminal Court and is theoretically obliged to arrest and surrender anyone against whom a warrant is issued by the court.

But Orbán made it clear when he issued the invitation that Budapest would not implement the decision, which he described as "blatant, ridiculous and completely unacceptable."

Hungary signed the Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has not been formally promulgated.

Gergely Gulyás, Viktor Orbán's chief of staff, said in November that although Hungary had ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it "has never been incorporated into Hungarian law," meaning none of the court's proceedings could be implemented within Hungary.

The Hungarian government will begin withdrawal procedures later today, the official MTI news agency quoted Gulyas as saying on Thursday.

Orbán hinted at the possibility of Hungary withdrawing after US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan in February.

"It's time for Hungary to review what it is doing in an international organization that is subject to US sanctions," Orbán said on Twitter in February.

The Hungarian parliament, dominated by Orbán's Fidesz coalition of young democrats, is likely to pass a bill to begin the process of withdrawing from the court. The withdrawal process will last for a year.

Netanyahu has enjoyed strong support for years from Orban, a key ally who has been willing to block EU statements and actions critical of Israel in the past.

In issuing the arrest warrants, ICC judges said there were reasonable legal grounds to believe Netanyahu and the former Israeli defense minister bore criminal responsibility for crimes including murder, persecution, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in Gaza."

The court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, known as Mohammed al-Deif, whose death the movement announced in January.