Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane took an extended detour on Thursday as he traveled to New York for the UN General Assembly in order to avoid the airspace of all countries along the route except Italy and Greece, lengthening the journey by hundreds of kilometers.
The trajectory, visible on Flight Tracker, may have been an effort to avoid problems related to the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza — charges Israel denies.
Many of the State Parties to the ICC in Europe have said that, pursuant to the arrest warrant, they would detain Netanyahu if he were present on their soil.
The detour added 600 kilometers (372 miles) to the journey, the Haaretz newspaper reported.
There was no official reason given for the unusual route, and ahead of departure, Israel had asked for authorization for Netanyahu’s plane to fly over French airspace, according to a French diplomatic official.
The French gave permission, according to the official, though the plane did not make use of it.
“They decided to take another route, and we don’t know the reason,” said the official.
The flight, on the Wing of Zion state plane, also appeared to avoid the airspace of Spain, which has vowed to assist the ICC investigation.
Kan public broadcaster correspondent Itay Blumenthal posted to social media images showing the path that Netanyahu took for his flight compared to a much shorter route he took when flying to the US in July.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced last week that Netanyahu would not bring journalists with him on his visit to the UN due to what it said were security considerations.
An i24 News report alleged, however, that officials decided to keep the number of people aboard the flight to a minimum, thus excluding journalists, in order to save fuel for what was expected to be a longer flight.
It was not clear why the prime minister was able to use a more direct route in July versus on his flight Thursday, just two months later.
France, which would normally be along the flight path, said last year it would not arrest the premier, though this drew a rebuke from the European Union.
When the premier flew to the US in February, that trip, too, was lengthened, in part over concerns about the ICC warrant. He also reportedly canceled a trip to Azerbaijan in May to avoid flying over Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel who has praised the Hamas terror group, welcomed the arrest warrant. Turkey refuses to allow Wing of Zion to pass through its airspace.
The ICC, based in The Hague, has indicted Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes committed during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. It also issued warrants for several Hamas leaders who have all since been killed by Israel, for crimes committed during the Palestinian terror group’s cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the invasion, most of them civilians, and 251 were taken hostage. Terror groups in Gaza are still holding 47 of those captured that day hostage, and Hamas is also holding the body of a soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 65,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.