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JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane took an unusual route to New York on Thursday, skirting several European countries en route to the United Nations General Assembly.
Although France had authorized Israeli use of its airspace, according to a French diplomatic source who spoke to AFP, flight-tracking data showed Netanyahu’s aircraft instead took a southern path.
It crossed Greece and Italy, then veered south through the Strait of Gibraltar before heading across the Atlantic.
Britain, France and Portugal were among a string of countries to recognize a Palestinian state this week, a move Netanyahu bitterly opposes. Ireland and Spain announced their recognition in May.
Israeli media, meanwhile, reported that the detour by Netanyahu’s plane was intended to avoid countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute, which could enforce an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in case of an emergency landing.
The ICC in November issued warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Spain last week announced it would support the ICC investigation and had set up a team to probe alleged human rights violations in Gaza, as part of its broader push to pressure Israel to end the war.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Friday. He is also slated to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next week.

BAGHDAD: Adrien Guihal, who claimed the 2016 Nice attack for the Daesh group, will be tried in Iraq alongside 46 other French nationals recently transferred from Syria, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
“Adrien Guihal, known as Abu Osama Al-Faransi, is still under investigation,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
Guihal “was brought to Iraq two months ago with another 46 French nationals that will be tried here,” the source added.
A veteran member of France’s militant networks, Guihal made headlines when he was recognized as the man behind the voice that claimed responsibility for the July 2016 attack which killed 86 people in the French city of Nice.
He is thought to be among the most dangerous members of the French contingent in the ranks of the Daesh group, whose self-styled “caliphate” spanned huge swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria before collapsing in 2019.
Guihal, who joined Daesh in 2015, was detained in the Syrian city of Raqqa in May 2018.
He spent years in Kurdish prisons in Syria before being brought to Iraq in July, along with 46 other French nationals who are being questioned over their alleged involvement in crimes committed by Daesh in Iraq.

- ‘Interrogations ongoing’ -

“Interrogations are ongoing with the 47 French nationals,” the Iraqi source said, alleging that “it has been proven” they are all members of Daesh.
Last week, Iraq’s National Intelligence Service said the suspects were “wanted by the Iraqi judiciary for their involvement in terrorist crimes committed in Iraq.”
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life prison terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including hundreds of foreign fighters — some caught in Syria and transferred across the border.
In 2019, the courts sentenced 11 French nationals to death. Their sentences were later commuted to life in prison, according to a judicial source.
Some human rights groups have denounced “terrorism” trials in Iraq as rushed.
The country still has mass graves and many personal testimonies of Daesh brutality to be investigated.
In 2024, after the mission of the UN body investigating Daesh crimes ended, Iraq created the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) to gather evidence and document Daesh crimes.
The center serves as the main point of contact for foreign jurisdictions investigating alleged offenses.
In France, which has been the target of repeated militant attack over the past decade, repatriation of Daesh suspects and their family members is a deeply sensitive issue.
Since 2019, France has repatriated only 179 children and 60 women, most of whom were held in detention camps in Syria.