Binyamin Netanyahu
Binyamin NetanyahuReuters

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned "neo-Nazism and racism" on Tuesday, following a white supremacist rally in the United States that ended in bloodshed.

"Outraged by expressions of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism. Everyone should oppose this hatred," Netanyahu posted in English on his official Twitter account.

US President Donald Trump, who had been under pressure to issue a strong condemnation of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday night denounced racism while calling the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis "repugnant".

Netanyahu broke his silence on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Trump's statement.

An Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that although the premier did not name Charlottesville it was the violence there to which he was referring.

During the white supremacist rally there, marchers carried swastika banners and chanted Nazi-era slogans.

Other Israeli officials had issued condemnations earlier.

"The unhindered waving of Nazi flags and symbols in the US is not only offensive towards the Jewish community and other minorities," Education Minister Naftali Bennet, a Netanyahu rival, said on Sunday.

"It also disrespects the millions of American soldiers who sacrificed their lives in order to protect the US and entire world from the Nazis," he said in a statement.

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, said on Monday that Netanyahu had asked him "to convey Israel's outrage over the attack and over the expressions of anti-Semitism and racism."