Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Online flight trackers show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew hundreds of kilometers into Canadian territory for a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday – despite Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier saying he would honor an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Carney was asked last October by Bloomberg if “Netanyahu will be arrested if he comes to Canada.”
The prime minister answered “yes” twice.
But this is the second time Netanyahu’s official Israeli government plane has flown him across Canadian territory in the past two months.
On December 29, Netanyahu’s Boeing 767, known as the Wing of Zion, flew over Newfoundland and Nova Scotia en route to Florida, where Netanyahu met with Trump at his Mar-A-Lago residence.
When CBC News asked for an explanation of that flight, Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Samantha Lafleur responded that the department “does not comment on which route a foreign country chooses to take. For security reasons, we cannot provide more details.”
The flight crosses 3 states
On Tuesday, Netanyahu’s plane flew over Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick before entering the US airfield in Maine.
Canadian protocol requires foreign government aircraft to seek permission properly before entering Canadian airspace.
“Applications for foreign, military or scientific aircraft to operate in Canadian territory must be submitted at least three working days (72h) before the proposed date of entry into Canadian airspace,” the government’s website says. “This early notice is important.”
CBC News asked Global Affairs if the Israeli government sought permission for the latest flight, but did not receive a response by press time.
Netanyahu has flown to the US seven times since Trump’s second inauguration.
Meanwhile, his flight patterns have changed in a way that suggests he is less concerned about the risk of arrest.
When the Israeli prime minister went to the US on September 25, 2025, the Wing of Zion made several detours as it crossed the Mediterranean to stay more on the water, entering the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar.
The trip added about 400 kilometers to the average flight distance from Tel Aviv to New York.
However, since then, Netanyahu has started flying a direct route over the European continent. His flight paths continued to avoid Spain, and he avoided Slovenia when he left Hungary.
The Spanish government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, and has said it will use ICC mandates. Slovenia has strongly supported the ICC and banned Netanyahu from its territory the day after one of his flights across Europe.
But Netanyahu has flown to several European countries that have signed the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), including France, Italy and Greece.
Only France has publicly said it has granted permission for the flights.
The flight path followed by Netanyahu’s plane on Tuesday was the classic Great Circle route (shortest distance) from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
The flight path posted by Flight Aware shows the flight crossed nine European countries, including Turkey.
