Jerusalem, Israel - The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denounced New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he said he considering whether to arrest the Israeli leader during an upcoming UN summit.

"Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York," Netanyahu's office said in a post on its official X account.

"Like Karim Khan, Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East."

In an interview published on Saturday, Mamdani said he was consulting New York City's legal team about the extent of the mayor's authority to direct police to detain a foreign leader, referring to Netanyahu.

Donald Trump Trump says new Air Force One needs to be "maxed out" after security concerns

"I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague," Mamdani told The New York Times. "He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court."

"Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do," he said.

Mamdani has in the past vowed to send the NYPD to enforce arrest warrants against leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court, including Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The UN General Assembly, a major gathering of world leaders, takes place in September at UN headquarters in New York.

The Hague-based ICC said in 2024 that it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel's offensive in Gaza.