{"id":453039,"date":"2025-09-26T14:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453039\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:56:13","slug":"bbc-verify-live-satellite-images-show-construction-work-at-iran-nuclear-sites-hit-in-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453039\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Verify Live: Satellite images show construction work at Iran nuclear sites hit in strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netanyahu\u2019s unusual flight route to the UNpublished at 13:28 BST<\/p>\n

13:28 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Thomas Copeland<\/strong>
BBC Verify Live journalist<\/p>\n

We\u2019re expecting to hear Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak at the United Nations General Assembly at 14:00 BST. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been looking into online posts that have been questioning the route his official aircraft took to get to New York.<\/p>\n

Flight-tracking data shows that the Wing of Zion, the principal Israeli state plane, left Tel Aviv and flew the length of the Mediterranean Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar before heading across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

While the route did take the aircraft through Greek and Italian airspace it avoided other European countries like France and Spain, adding around 663km (412 miles) to the length of the flight and extending the journey by about two hours compared with direct commercial flights from Tel Aviv to New York. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

There have been widespread claims online that this route was selected to avoid countries that might enforce an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. Netanyahu has firmly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Signatories to the ICC statute, which include France, Spain, the UK and Republic of Ireland, could be legally required to arrest Netanyahu and surrender him to The Hague-based court if he enters their territory.<\/p>\n

Flight-tracking records show Netanyahu\u2019s plane routinely flew over France before the arrest warrant was issued in November 2024.<\/p>\n

Relations between Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron have deteriorated in recent months as France has joined the UK, Canada and Australia in recognising Palestinian statehood. <\/p>\n

French diplomatic sources, however, have told BBC Verify that \u201cFrance authorised the Israeli prime minister’s flight to overfly its territory,\u201d but that the route ultimately taken was at the discretion of the Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n

Spain, which recognised a Palestinian state last year, announced last week that it would support the ICC’s investigations by establishing a team to gather evidence of alleged human rights abuses in Gaza, according to the country\u2019s attorney general. <\/p>\n

The Spanish foreign ministry declined to comment when we asked them what, if any, action it would have taken if Netanyahu\u2019s flight had entered its airspace. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s unusual flight route to the UNpublished at 13:28 BST 13:28 BST Thomas CopelandBBC Verify Live journalist We\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-453039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115271184431214689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}