Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim has criticised Washington for receiving Netanyahu, who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity including genocide.

“Enabling him from the highest platforms in the country to spread his lies, is a bad omen for you,” Naim wrote in a statement according to Al Jazeera.

“Receiving a war criminal in direct contradiction to all your values of freedom, justice and dignity is the last stop in the series of lies and hypocrisy that you are practicing and sets a new stage that portends the demise of this greatest empire in human history.

“In our literature in the east, we say: ‘A regime of injustice lasts but an hour, while a regime of justice endures until the end of time.’ Countries that practice or support injustice are bound to disappear; it may not be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but it is an inevitable fate.”

He added that the correct step for law-abiding countries is to “issue an immediate order to arrest the war criminal Netanyahu … in line with the decisions of international judicial institutions, the latest of which was the decision of the International Criminal Court.

“Our people will not forget and will not forgive anyone who wronged them or supported those who wronged them.”