Startup Wrap – Egyptian firms secure funding to boost Saudi expansions after battling stagnation 

Startup Wrap – Egyptian firms secure funding to boost Saudi expansions after battling stagnation 
Egyptian startups have secured sizeable investments. Shutterstock
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Updated 27 April 2024
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Startup Wrap – Egyptian firms secure funding to boost Saudi expansions after battling stagnation 

Startup Wrap – Egyptian firms secure funding to boost Saudi expansions after battling stagnation 

CAIRO: Startups in Egypt have started to gain momentum with several ventures securing funding to boost expansion efforts to the Kingdom. 

Following a period of startup funding stagnation, Egyptian founders have made their way back to the regional venture capital space with a flurry of investment deals and expansion strategies already in place. 

Egyptian fintech startup Waffarha has secured a seven-figure seed round from Value Makers Studio to expand its footprint.  

Founded in 2012 by Tarek Magdy, the platform offers significant discounts, with daily deals ranging from 50 percent to 90 percent.  

The new capital will enable Waffarha to enhance its technology, recruit talent, and expand into Saudi Arabia and additional markets.   

Moreover, in 2018, Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payments, one of Egypt’s largest financial institutions, acquired a share of 30 percent of the company. 

The company claims to boast a network of over 1,000 merchants and over 3,000 stores that cater to more than 5 million customers, without any subscription fees.  

Over the last 12 years, Waffarha claims to have emerged as a top-tier lifestyle website and mobile app.  

Egyptian HR tech startup Bluworks secures $1m in pre-seed funding 

Bluworks, an HR and Software-as-a-Service solutions provider based in Egypt, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Khawarizmi Ventures and included Camel Ventures, Acasia Ventures, and angel investors.  

Founded in 2022 by Farah Osman, Hussein Wahdan, and Nour Ahmadein, Bluworks aims to optimize costs for businesses through data-driven decision-making.  

“With so many HR softwares on the market, not one is built to manage blue-collar workers,” Wahdan said.  

“Since the process of managing this type of workforce is so manual, errors frequently occur, leading to penalties and deducted salaries with no oversight from the workers, causing them to leave and ultimately contributing to high turnover rates,” he added. 

“Currently, companies can spend about 7-10 days just closing their payroll accounts, but with Bluworks, this time can be cut down to one day - all while leveraging data and insights on their workforce,” he stated. 

The company aims to utilize the funding to support its product development goals, expand its presence, and grow its team.   

Egypt-based fintech Bokra closes $4.6m pre-seed funding round  




Bokra was founded in 2023 by Ayman El-Sawy. Supplied

Bokra, an emerging fintech startup from Egypt, has secured $4.6 million in pre-seed funding, led by DisrupTech Ventures and SS Capital.  

Founded in 2023 by Ayman El-Sawy, Bokra offers diversified investment solutions for retail and SME investors.  

The funds will support the launch of the Bokra app, expansion of its investment products, and scaling operations across the Middle East and North Africa region.   

“We are dedicated to accelerating financial inclusion and elevating investment awareness across MENA,” El-Sawy said. 

“In a region where financial needs and aspirations are ever-changing, Bokra is poised to become the preferred investment platform for both individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises looking to diversify their fractional ownership portfolio in a simple, trackable and informed way,” he added. 

Egyptian startups win big in Saudi-Egyptian program 

Ten Egyptian startups have received awards from the VMS Bridge program, aimed at enhancing connections between Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial ecosystems.  

Winners included Amanleek, Farhy, Sprints, Career180, and Jamaykaa, which will explore investment opportunities during a 4-day visit to the Kingdom.

Other winners, Notchnco and Neqabty, received free company licenses in Saudi Arabia, and AgriCash, ReNile, and ICareer won access to Arweqah’s training programs.   

Jordan-based healthtech startup Arab Therapy secures $1m seed funding 

Arab Therapy, a Jordan-based mental health platform, has raised $1 million in seed funding, led by Flat6Labs and Vision Health Pioneers, with participation from international angel investors. 

Founded in 2021 by Tareq Dalbah, Omar Koudsi, and Hekmat Al-Hasi, Arab Therapy connects users with licensed mental health professionals.  

The investment will facilitate the company’s market expansion and the initiation of business to business sales operations. 

TVM Capital Healthcare invests $17m in Neurocare Group AG 

TVM Capital Healthcare, based in the UAE, has invested $17 million into Neurocare Group AG, a Munich-headquartered healthtech specializing in personalized mental healthcare.  

The investment will support Neurocare’s expansion plans in the US and Saudi Arabia and fund the development of new hardware and software innovations, enhancing their clinical solutions. 

UAE-based logistics startup Shorages secures $1m for expansion 

Shorages, a UAE-based logistics startup, has raised $1 million in a pre-series A funding round led by Joa Capital’s S3 Ventures Fund.  

Founded in 2019 by Rayan Osseiran, the company provides fulfillment solutions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia for e-commerce platforms.  

The company aims to utilize the funding to help expand its warehouse operations across the Gulf region. 

UAE e-commerce startup WEE secures $12m in funding 

UAE-based e-commerce startup WEE has concluded a $12 million pre-series A funding round, facilitated by SIG Investment.  

Founded in 2021 by Anastasia Kim, Oleg Dashkevich, and Sergey Kolikov, WEE is an online marketplace that offers below 15-minutes delivery services.  

The investment will be used to spearhead WEE’s logistics capabilities, accelerate growth, and expand its team. 

Turkish fintech app Midas closes $45m funding round to boost MENA expansion 

Turkish fintech app Midas closed a $45 million funding round by Portage, a global investment platform, supported by International Finance Corporation, Spark Capital and Earlybird Digital East Fund. 

Founded by Egem Eraslan, the company allows users in Turkiye to invest in Turkish and US equities. 

The startup is aimed at Turkiye’s retail investor market and claims to have more than 2 million users. The company claims to charge significantly lower transaction and commission fees for Turkish customers who want to invest in US or Turkish stocks. 

Midas has plans to expand beyond Turkiye, and aims to target countries in the MENA region, according to a report by TechCrunch. 

Midas also plans to use the new funding to roll out three new products in cryptocurrency trading, mutual funds and savings accounts.  

UAE’s Maalexi signs agreement with Etihad Credit Insurance 

Maalexi, a UAE-based risk management platform focused on SME agri-businesses, has entered into a strategic credit insurance agreement with Etihad Credit Insurance, the UAE’s federal export credit company.  

This collaboration will enable Maalexi to utilize ECI’s extensive trade credit solutions and services, enhancing the competitiveness of regional SMEs in the food and agriculture trade sectors, both locally and internationally.  

The partnership aims to reduce market entry barriers, support Maalexi’s goal of increasing SME participation in the cross-border trade of agricultural produce, and contribute to food security in the UAE.  


KSrelief aids communities in need

KSrelief aids communities in need
Updated 3 min 55 sec ago
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KSrelief aids communities in need

KSrelief aids communities in need

RIYADH: Saudi aid agency KSrelief continues its humanitarian projects to assist some of the world’s most vulnerable people, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

The agency delivered medications for blood diseases and thalassemia to the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Yemen’s Hadramout governorate.

KSrelief distributed 1,143 boxes of dates in Rif Dimashq governorate in the Syrian Arab Republic, benefiting 1,143 families, while also distributing clothing bags to 132 needy families in the same region.

The agency handed out 1,500 food baskets to displaced and vulnerable families in Sudan’s Ad-Damir in the Nile River state, benefiting 9,000 people.

It also supplied 472 food parcels to vulnerable individuals in the Western Bekaa region of Lebanon, helping 2,360 people.

KSrelief has implemented 3,389 projects worth nearly $7.9 billion in 106 countries since its launch in May 2015, working with more than 300 local, regional, and international partners.


Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star with an intense approach, dies at 65

Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star with an intense approach, dies at 65
Updated 4 min 23 sec ago
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Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star with an intense approach, dies at 65

Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star with an intense approach, dies at 65
  • Val Kilmer: ‘I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets’
  • Director John Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: ‘Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again’

LOS ANGELES: Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite Iceman in “Top Gun,” donned a voluminous cape as Batman in “Batman Forever” and portrayed Jim Morrison in “The Doors,” has died. He was 65.
Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press. The New York Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.
Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.
“I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed,” he says toward the end of “Val,” the 2021 documentary on his career. “And I am blessed.”
Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most. His break came in 1984’s spy spoof “Top Secret!” followed by the comedy “Real Genius” in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including “MacGruber” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993’s “Tombstone,” as Elvis’ ghost in “True Romance” and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann’s 1995 film “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
“While working with Val on ‘Heat’ I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character,” director Michael Mann said in a statement Tuesday night.
Actor Josh Brolin, a friend of Kilmer, was among others paying tribute.
“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker,” Brolin wrote on Instagram. “There’s not a lot left of those.”
Kilmer — who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training — threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.
That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.
“In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio,” he wrote in his memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry.”
One of his more iconic roles — hotshot pilot Tom “Iceman” Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for “Top Gun” but initially balked. “I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
One career nadir was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher’s goofy, garish “Batman Forever” with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O’Donnell’s Robin — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997’s “Batman & Robin” and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989’s “Batman” and 1992’s “Batman Returns.”
Janet Maslin in the Times said Kilmer was “hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role,” while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a “completely acceptable” substitute for Keaton. Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.
“When you’re in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down,” Kilmer said in “Val,” in lines spoken by his son Jack, who voiced the part of his father in the film because of his inability to speak. “You also can’t hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, it’s very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to.”
His next projects were the film version of the 1960s TV series “The Saint” — fussily putting on wigs, accents and glasses — and “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Marlon Brando, which became one of the decade’s most infamously cursed productions.
David Gregory’s 2014 documentary “Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau,” described a cursed set that included a hurricane, Kilmer bullying director Richard Stanley, the firing of Stanley via fax (who sneaked back on set as an extra with a mask on) and extensive rewrites by Kilmer and Brando. The older actor told the younger at one point: “‘It’s a job now, Val. A lark. We’ll get through it.’ I was as sad as I’ve ever been on a set,” Kilmer wrote in his memoir.
In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ran a cover story about Kilmer titled “The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate.” The directors Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who finished “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” said he was difficult. Frankenheimer said there were two things he would never do: ″Climb Mount Everest and work with Val Kilmer again.″
Other artists came to his defense, like D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in ″The Salton Sea″ and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director’s attention.
“Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, ‘You’re Batman! Just go do it,’” Caruso told the Times in 2002.
After “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” the movies were smaller, like David Mamet human-trafficking thriller “Spartan”; “Joe the King” in 1999, in which he played a paunchy, abusive alcoholic; and playing the doomed ‘70s porn star John Holmes in 2003’s “Wonderland.” He also threw himself into his one-man stage show “Citizen Twain,” in which he played Mark Twain.
“I enjoy the depth and soul the piece has that Twain had for his fellow man and America,” he told Variety in 2018. “And the comedy that’s always so close to the surface, and how valuable his genius is for us today.”
Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.
Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.
″I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I’m still inspired by him,″ Kilmer told the Times.
While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play “How It All Began” and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” for the Broadway play, “Slab Boys,” alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.
Kilmer published two books of poetry (including “My Edens After Burns”) and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for “The Mark of Zorro.” He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.
He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley. He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.
“I have no regrets,” Kilmer told the AP in 2021. “I’ve witnessed and experienced miracles.”


Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say

Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say
Updated 18 min 48 sec ago
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Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say

Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say
  • The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump has killed at least 65 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis
  • “Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said

DUBAI: Suspected US airstrikes battered militant-controlled areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with the Houthis saying that one strike killed at least four people near the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
Meanwhile, satellite images taken Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press show at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.
The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump, targeting the militants over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war, has killed at least 65 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.
The campaign appears to show no signs of stopping as the Trump administration again linked their airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. While so far giving no specifics about the campaign and its targets, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt put the overall number of strikes on Tuesday at more than 200.
“Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said. “They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels and this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored.”
The Houthis haven’t acknowledged the loss of any of its leadership so far — and the US hasn’t identified any official by name. However, messages released by the leak of a Signal conversation between Trump administration officials and their public comments suggest a leader in the militants’ missile forces had been targeted.
Fatal strike reportedly targets Hodeida
Overnight, a likely US airstrike targeted what the Houthis described as a “water project” in Hodeida governorate’s Mansuriyah District, killing four people and wounding others. Other strikes into Wednesday targeted Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa governorates, the militants said.
The militants say they’ve continued to launch attacks against US warships in the Red Sea, namely the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which is carrying out the majority of the strikes on the Houthis. No warship has been struck yet, but the US Navy has described the Houthi fire as the most intense combat its sailors have faced since World War II.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, now in Asia, is on its way to the Middle East to back up the Truman. Early Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that “additional squadrons and other air assets” would be deployed to the region, without elaborating.
More B-2s seen at Diego Garcia
That likely includes the deployment of nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to Camp Thunder Bay on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Satellite photos taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP showed at least six B-2s at the base.
The deployment represents nearly a third of all the B-2 bombers in Washington’s arsenal. It’s also highly unusual to see that many at one base abroad. Typically, so-called show of force missions involving the B-2 have seen two or three of the aircraft conduct operations in foreign territory.
The nuclear-capable B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the US military in combat, because each aircraft is worth around $1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well. The bombers are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there.
The US has used the B-2 in Yemen last year to attack underground Houthi bases. The B-2 likely would need to be used if Washington ever tried to target Iran’s underground nuclear sites as well.
The Houthis on Tuesday said that they shot down another American MQ-9 drone over the country.
Intense US bombings began on March 15
An AP review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former US President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the militants threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militants have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.


Philippines steps up disaster preparedness in wake of deadly Myanmar quake

Philippines steps up disaster preparedness in wake of deadly Myanmar quake
Updated 32 min 56 sec ago
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Philippines steps up disaster preparedness in wake of deadly Myanmar quake

Philippines steps up disaster preparedness in wake of deadly Myanmar quake
  • Philippine officials are warning of a 7.2-magnitude quake that could kill up to 50,000 people
  • Officials are working to improve building resilience across the country to withstand earthquakes

Manila: Philippine officials are calling for enhanced disaster preparedness following the massive earthquake in Myanmar, warning that the archipelago nation is at risk of a devastating seismic event. 

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, lies along the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where the majority of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

For the past decade, the Philippine government has been preparing for the “Big One,” a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that experts say could impact Manila and its surrounding areas.

“We must double our efforts, especially as the Philippines is at risk for the ‘Big One’— a potentially catastrophic earthquake that could result in 30,000 to 50,000 casualties,” Ariel F. Nepomuceno, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, has said. 

“The most critical step in enhancing our earthquake preparedness is to implement engineering solutions, such as retrofitting essential structures like schools and health centers.” 

The 7.2-magnitude earthquake forecast by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology was based on historical records of fault movements, as seismic events are impossible to predict. 

Philippine officials have been calling for increased disaster preparedness after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit central Myanmar on Friday killed more than 2,700 people, injured more than 4,500 others, and destroyed scores of buildings. 

“We’re part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and every now and then we have earthquakes, we’ll be jolted by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and sometimes tsunamis. And for all these disasters, the best course of action is always preparedness,” PHIVOLCS Director Dr. Teresito Bacolcol said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“We have to make sure that our buildings, our houses are earthquake resilient — meaning, we have to follow the minimum engineering standards when we construct our houses or buildings.”

In the Manila capital region, at least 124 public buildings have been retrofitted, or strengthened to make it more earthquake-resistant, with plans to do so for 500 more, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways. 

The Department of Science and Technology, which presides over PHIVOLCS, is also planning to hold earthquake seminars in different parts of the country this year, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency. 

Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Defense is working on improving the National Simultaneous Earthquake Drill by adding more scenarios, including nighttime drills and tsunami preparedness. 

One of the deadliest recorded earthquakes in the Philippines took place in 1990, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 2,000 people in the country’s north.


Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant
Updated 27 min 35 sec ago
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Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant
  • The ICC, the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu
  • The ICC has criticized Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu

BUDAPEST: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Hungary’s capital on Wednesday to meet with the country’s nationalist prime minister despite an international arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu’s four-day visit to Budapest is a sign of both his close relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the latter’s growing hostility toward international institutions, like the International Criminal Court, of which his country is a member.
Orbán, a conservative populist and close Netanyahu ally, has vowed to disregard the ICC warrant against the Israeli leader, accusing the world’s top war crimes court based in The Hague, Netherlands, of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”
Members of Orbán’s government have suggested that Hungary, which became a signatory to the court in 2001, could withdraw. Currently, all countries in the 27-member European Union, including Hungary, are signatories, and all members of the court are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil.
The ICC, the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu as well as for his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been killed during the Israeli military’s response.
The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges that Israeli officials deny.
The ICC has criticized Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu. The court’s spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said that it’s not for parties to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal decisions.”
Participating states have an obligation to enforce the court’s decisions, El Ebdallah told The Associated Press in an email, and may consult with the court if they disagree with its rulings.
“Any dispute concerning the judicial functions of the Court shall be settled by the decision of the Court,” El Abdallah said.
Orbán, who has been the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, is seen as a pioneer of some of the same tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the European Union and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.
Longtime allies and fellow practitioners of “illiberal” governance — a term adopted by Orbán that denotes a rejection of the tenets of liberal democracy — the two leaders are also allied with US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order in February imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.
Orbán’s government has said that Trump’s return to the White House has enabled it to take measures it was unable to during the administration of former US President Joe Biden — such as passing legislation to ban LGBTQ+ Pride events in Hungary.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, the head of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy of human rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement that Hungary “must arrest (Netanyahu) if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court.”
“Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state,” Guevara-Rosas said.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at rights group Human Rights Watch, said that Hungary allowing Netanyahu’s visit was a breach of Hungary’s ICC obligations, and “would be Orban’s latest assault on the rule of law, adding to the country’s dismal record on rights.”
“All ICC member countries need to make clear they expect Hungary to abide by its obligations to the court, and that they will do the same,” Evenson said.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Putin visited Mongolia, which is also a member of the ICC, in September last year, but he wasn’t arrested. Last year, judges found that the country failed to uphold its legal obligations and referred the matter to the court’s oversight body.