Argentine President Javier Milei rejected the arrest order the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is being accused of committing crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Milei posted a statement on X on Thursday backing Netanyahu on behalf of Argentina. He said that the country deeply disagrees with the arrest order that also involves former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“This decision disregards Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself from the constant attacks of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah,” Milei wrote.

The Argentine president went on to say that Israel has suffered “brutal aggression” from those organizations. Milei called Tel Aviv’s attacks on Palestinians “self-defense” and described the ICC’s decision as a “criminaliziation” of this effort. 

“Argentina expresses its solidarity towards Israel, vindicates its right to protects its people, and demands the immediate release of all the hostages,” he wrote. He ended the message by signing it as “The Argentine Republic.”

The Argentine Foreign Ministry has not released a statement of its own at time of writing, but did share Milei’s post on their X account.

The ICC, the world’s top war-crimes court, issued the arrest order on Netanyahu and Gallant on Wednesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to a press release by the ICC, the accusation states that Israel used starvation as warfare in its war against Hamas in Gaza, and committed murder, persecution, and “other inhumane acts.” 

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years, killing dozens and wounding hundreds in a surprise assault. Israel considered the attack a declaration of war and launched an assault on Gaza. Over 44,000 people have died in the Palestinian territory since the beginning of the siege, according to local health authorities. More than half of those killed were women and children.

According to experts consulted by news agency AP, hunger has become widespread across Gaza and may have reached famine levels in the north of the territory, which is under siege by Israeli troops.

The ICC release said that the court considered that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza” of basic needs such as food, water, medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity. They did this between October 8, 2023, and at least May 20, 2024, by effectively impeding humanitarian aid from reaching them.

Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions” by the court, and that “there is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.”