German leader Olaf Scholz has told Israel's prime minister that any attempt to minimize or deny the Holocaust was unacceptable, after criticism that he was too slow to react to remarks made by the Palestinian president in Berlin.

At a joint presser with Scholz on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded to a question on whether he would apologize for the 1972 Palestinian attack on Israeli athletes in Munich by saying: "From 1947 until today, Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian villages”, and then added, “50 slaughters – 50 Holocausts."

"Our position is clear: We condemn any attempt to deny or downplay the importance of the Holocaust," Scholz tweeted after a phone call with Israeli PM Yair Lapid.

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In response to the outcry, Abbas issued a statement calling Nazi Germany's Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed, "the most heinous crime in modern human history."

However, Scholz was criticized by some German politicians for not immediately condemning Abbas' comment, although he had earlier rejected Abbas' description of relations between Israel and the Palestinian territories as "apartheid."

The following day, Scholz publicly denounced the comment, and a government spokesperson took the blame for bringing the joint news conference to a close before Scholz could react.

The Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement that at the start of their phone call, Scholz stressed that he rejected and condemned the remarks and said it was important to share this personally with Lapid, as well as publicly.

"Prime Minister Lapid thanked him, both as the prime minister of Israel and as the son of Holocaust survivors," said his office.

Scholz and Lapid agreed to meet soon in Berlin, the German chancellor tweeted.

The two emphasized the importance of the ties and cooperation between Israel and Germany, while also discussing the Iranian nuclear program, to which Israel is vehemently opposed.