Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud’s party has cast New York mayor Zohran Mamdani alongside Iranian and Hezbollah leaders in a campaign advert for the forthcoming Israeli elections.

The billboard seen in the country’s capital TV features the new Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hezbollah’s security-general Naim Qassem against a jet black background.

“They want Netanyahu to lose, don’t let them win,” reads a caption alongside it.

Netanyahu reposted the image saying: “Don’t let them win.”

It follows a public clash with Mayor Mamdani after the US politician called on the federal government to enforce an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in 2024 following allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

Although the US is not a member, the arrest warrant means the Israeli leader is an internationally wanted suspect and that the ICC’s 124 member states are be obliged to arrest him if he was to enter their territory.

Mayor Mamdani told The New York Times last month: “I believe that prime minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague.

“He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that it is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

The politician said that he was looking into means to arrest Netanyahu but later clarified that the matter was outside his jurisdiction and called on the federal government to take action.

President Trump rushed to Netanyahu’s defence and insisted that he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America” in a Truth Social Post.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon accused the mayor of antisemitism and supporting Hamas while Netanyahu called Mamdani’s words “hate speech”.

Despite the controversy, Netanyahu made an historic eighth state visit of Trump’s second term in July.

A warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest was issued in November 2024, accusing him of being “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” in Gaza.

He is also accused of “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024” but Netanyahu denies the claims and has called them “antisemitic”.

Israeli elections take place in October this year and will be the first test of Netanyahu’s premiership since 7 October after which they were suspended and postponed.

The last elections were held in 2022 and saw Netanyahu’s Likud party join forces with the far-right religious parties of Israeli security minister Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezelel Smotrich.