Binyamin Netanyahu’s flight to the US on Thursday avoided flying over France and much of continental Europe following a diplomatic rupture between the historic allies and the Israeli prime minister, who is subject to an international arrest warrant over the war in Gaza.
While the standard flight path from Israel to New York crosses France, the Israeli premier’s Wing of Zion plane took a longer and circuitous route above the Mediterranean Sea, according to flight tracking websites such as FlightAware and a person familiar with Israeli government thinking.
The aircraft passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Atlantic Ocean airspace, briefly traversing over Greece and Italy.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued an arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, alleging that Israel had committed war crimes and other crimes against humanity in its offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7th, 2023, attack.
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On at least one occasion since, Mr Netanyahu’s flight path to the US avoided various European states that are party to the Rome Statute. This treaty established the ICC and obligates signatories to arrest the Israeli leader in the event of an emergency landing.
Mr Netanyahu is set to give a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, followed by a meeting with US president Donald Trump in Washington on Monday. It will mark the fourth such meeting between the pair since Mr Trump returned to office in January, the most by any foreign leader.
Relations between Mr Netanyahu and French president Emmanuel Macron have deteriorated in recent months, with Israel escalating its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and Mr Macron – along with Saudi Arabia – spearheading an initiative to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Several states, including France, the UK, Canada, and Australia, have recently recognised the state of Palestine. They have also called for an end to the Gaza war and Israeli land seizures and other violations in the occupied West Bank, which they say have imperilled the prospects for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.
Before he departed from Tel Aviv early on Thursday morning, Mr Netanyahu criticised leaders who recognised a Palestinian state, saying he would use his UN address to “denounce those leaders”, who he has accused of rewarding Hamas by giving them “a state in the heart of the land of Israel. This will not happen.”
In a break with protocol, no journalists were invited on Wing of Zion for the flight due to unspecified “security concerns”, according to the source familiar with Israeli government thinking.
Israeli media and flight analysts speculated that the modern and spacious Boeing 767 passenger jet, which entered service last year, needed to carry extra fuel for the longer route.
One French diplomatic source said Mr Netanyahu was granted authorisation to fly over France’s airspace but “decided to take another route”. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
