An aircraft carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flown through Greek, Italian and French airspace on its way to the United States, despite the arrest warrant the International Criminal Court issued against him.

The flight path, reported by Middle East Monitor, demonstrates that at least three European states — all parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC — allowed the aircraft to transit their airspace rather than impede its passage.

Under the ICC framework, the 124 member states of the Rome Statute are obligated to execute arrest warrants issued by the court against individuals on their territory. Transit through a state's airspace, however, presents a legally ambiguous situation: the warrants apply to persons present on a member state's soil, and overflight does not constitute such presence in the conventional sense.

The ICC issued the warrant against Netanyahu in connection with alleged war crimes. Israeli and US officials have rejected the court's jurisdiction, and Washington has separately sanctioned ICC personnel connected to the case.

The route through Greek, Italian and French airspace carries practical significance. Each of the three countries is a NATO member and a Rome Statute signatory, and each has faced the question of how to handle Netanyahu's travel since the warrant was issued. Their decision to permit overflight, while stopping short of hosting a landing, avoids the more consequential test of obligations that a ground visit would present.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, so the destination of the flight raises no legal question of execution. Netanyahu has traveled to the US previously since the warrant was issued.

European governments have diverged in practice. Some have stated they would fulfill their treaty obligations if Netanyahu landed on their territory; others have avoided definitive positions. The overflight permission granted by Greece, Italy and France adds a data point to that record: none of the three treated the warrant as grounds to restrict passage of the aircraft through airspace under their jurisdiction.

The flight underscores the gap between the court's legal instrument and the enforcement architecture available to it. The ICC has no enforcement mechanism of its own; it depends entirely on member states to act on its warrants. Where states decline to test that obligation — as in overflight, or in visits by leaders of non-cooperating states — the warrant's practical effect narrows.

Future Netanyahu travel to Rome Statute member states that involve landings, rather than transit, will offer a clearer measure of how member governments weigh treaty obligations against diplomatic and security considerations.