WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's President Andrzej Duda is asking the country's government to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can attend observances marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz later this month without the risk of being arrested, a Polish presidential aide said Thursday.

Netanyahu became an internationally wanted suspect after the International Criminal Court, the world's top war crimes court, issued an arrest warrant for him and others in connection with the 15-month war in Gaza, accusing them of crimes against humanity.

There have been reports suggesting that the warrant could prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.

Member countries of the ICC, such as Poland, are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.

The court has more than 120 member states, though some countries, including France, have already said that they would not arrest him. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even said he would defy the warrant by inviting Netanyahu to Hungary.

It was not even clear if Netanyahu wants to attend the event. The Polish Foreign Ministry, in response to an email query, said Thursday that “it has not received any information so far indicating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to attend the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

“Poland is a safe country and any leader visiting Poland is entitled to protection granted by the Ministry of the Interior,” it added. The ministry also suggested that any idea that Netanyahu could be arrested in Poland is “fake news" that spread in U.S. media.

The commemoration will be attended by international officials and elderly survivors. It is to take place in Oswiecim, a town that was under German occupation during World War II where the Nazi German forces operated the most notorious of its death camps.

More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz. Historians say that most of them, about a million, were Jewish, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others.

Duda has asked the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to provide Netanyahu with protection from arrest, according to a top Duda aide, Malgorzata Paprocka, according to a report from PAP, the Polish state news agency.

Paprocka said that every Israeli state official and citizen should have the right to take part in the anniversary commemorations, and noted that “all instruments” related to ensuring Netanyahu’s stay in Poland are in the hands of Tusk’s government.

Bloomberg News first reported that Duda sent the request to Tusk by letter.

Paprocka said Duda's office was still waiting for a reply.