London, August 14 (RHC)-- More than 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he pays an official visit to Britain next month.

The petition, published on the UK parliament website, demands the arrest of Israel's 65-year-old chairman of the Likud party upon arrival in London for "the massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014."

The British government is expected to respond to the demand as all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures should be seen into. Moreover, any petition that receives in excess of 100,000 signatures must be considered by the UK parliament for debate. The deadline for signing the petition is on February 7, 2016.

Israel has rejected the petition as meaningless. The Zionist Foreign Ministry said the petition drive is "a PR exercise with no real meaning," insisting that bilateral ties between Britain and Israel are closer than ever before," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier this week.

Israel started its latest war on the Gaza Strip in early July last year. The offensive ended on August 26, 2014, with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel's 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 others - including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people - were also injured.