Netanyahu's plane flies through Greek, Italian, French airspace en route to US despite ICC warrant

Israeli premier takes similar route to July trip; ICC treaty does not explicitly require states to intercept aircraft carrying person subject to arrest warrant

The plane carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly again used the airspace of Greece, Italy, and France despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court. According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, Netanyahu’s plane left Israel early Thursday for the United States to attend the 81st session of the UN General Assembly and crossed the airspace of European countries that are members of the International Criminal Court. All three countries are parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and are generally required to cooperate with the court's requests to arrest and surrender wanted individuals found on their territory. The treaty, however, does not explicitly require a member state to intercept or force down an aircraft merely because a person subject to an ICC arrest warrant is flying through its airspace. Netanyahu's plane followed a similar route during his trip to the US in July, also crossing the airspace of Greece, Italy and France. When Netanyahu traveled to the United States in September 2025 to attend the previous UN General Assembly, his plane took a route over the Mediterranean Sea and through the Strait of Gibraltar, apparently to avoid the airspace his plane used this year. On Nov. 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday that Netanyahu would not land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York due to concerns that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani might not allow the plane to remain on the tarmac. His plane instead will land at a military airport in New Jersey -- exclusively under the control of the federal government under the Trump administration -- or at Newark Airport in the neighboring state of New Jersey, it added. Netanyahu is scheduled to address the 81st session of the UN General Assembly at 2 pm New York time (1800GMT) Thursday. His visit comes amid expectations of protests against Netanyahu in New York, in condemnation of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and attacks in the occupied West Bank. Israel has been waging an extermination war in Gaza since Oct. 8, 2023, killing nearly 74,000 Palestinians and injuring over 175,000, most of them children and women. In addition to the casualties, Israel has destroyed around 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, while the UN has estimated the cost of reconstruction at about $70 billion. Alongside its genocidal war in Gaza, attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have intensified, drawing rising international condemnation in recent months.