Polish president says don't arrest Netanyahu at Auschwitz ceremony

Poland's president has urged the government not to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he attend the Auschwitz liberation anniversary event later this month, his office said Thursday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November over the Gaza war, prompting outrage from Israel and its allies.

Poland, as a party to the ICC, would be required to arrest Netanyahu if he attended the ceremony marking 80 years since the Red Army liberated the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said "every person from Israel, every official from that country, should be able to take part in this unique event", his aide Malgorzata Paprocka said on X.

Duda had sent a letter to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk "to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is able to participate in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, should he express such a wish".

Tusk has not yet commented on the president's position.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli military says it has killed in Gaza.

The court said it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.

The ceremony commemorating 80 years since the Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation is scheduled for January 27, with international delegations in attendance.

The Auschwitz Museum had previously told AFP it was up to each country to choose its representatives for the event.

Nazi Germany built the death camp after it invaded Poland in World War II.

The camp has become a symbol of Nazi Germany's genocide of six million European Jews, one million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.

© Agence France-Presse