Poland will guarantee Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “free and secure access and participation” in the planned commemoration event marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi death camp in Auschwitz despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on January 9.

The event – at which Netanyahu has yet to confirm his attendance – will take place on January 27 and is expected to gather leaders from many countries. Tusk's decision follows a letter to the government from President Andrzej Duda earlier this week, saying that Poland should allow Netanyahu to attend if the Israeli leader decides so because of “exceptional circumstances”.

"Poland declares that it will ensure free and secure access and participation in [the] commemorations for the highest representatives of the state of Israel," the government said in a statement.

"I confirm, whether it is the prime minister, the president or the minister – as it is currently declared – of education of Israel, whoever will come … for the celebrations in Auschwitz will be assured of safety and will not be detained," Tusk told journalists, according to Reuters. The Polish premier has accused the president of trying to score political points out of the issue.

The issue has put the Tusk government in a tight spot, as the Polish leader made the rule of law a cornerstone of his successful campaign ahead of the general election in 2023 after the EU – drawing on rulings by its top courts – withheld funding to Poland, saying the country's previous government flouted the bloc's rule of law principles.

The ICC issued its arrest warrant against Netanyahu in November for what it said were war crimes in Gaza.

Since October 2023, Israel has been conducting a military operation in the Gaza Strip, where an estimated 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, overwhelmingly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.  The campaign aims to neuter Hamas following the group’s attack on Israel in October 2023.

The ICC's warrant places Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at risk of arrest if he visits any of the 120 countries that recognise the court’s jurisdiction. However, some states, such as France and Hungary, have stated they will not detain him.

The former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is the site of the mass murder of an estimated 1mn people, most of them European Jews, between 1942 and 1944. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage memorial site, and was visited by nearly 1.7mn people in 2023.