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Israel
(Tuesday), 03/03/2026 - 13:40 GMT+1 On Saturday evening, the same day that the airstrikes took place, flight-tracking data showed that Israel's government plane had landed at Berlin's Brandenburg Airport. Online, users claimed that Israeli Netanyahu was on board the flight. A protest was organised in Berlin demanding to know whether Netanyahu or another member of the Israeli government was on board. Some claimed that Germany had breached "Article 7" (likely of the Rome Statute) by failing to arrest Netanyahu when the plane landed, as the Israeli leader is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. Most of these allegations rely on flight-tracking data from Flightradar, and a review of this data indeed confirms that the Israeli government plane, known as Wing of Zion, departed Beersheba in Israel in the early afternoon of Saturday. The aircraft then spent several hours circling over the Mediterranean before landing at Berlin's primary airport in the evening. There is no evidence to suggest that Netanyahu was on board the plane. A picture posted by his office shows him attending a security meeting in Kirya, in Tel Aviv, with the IDF Chief of Staff and Director of the Mossad one day after the plane landed. A photograph was attached showing him attending the meeting on Sunday. His office also released a photograph showing him on the roof of a building in Kirya. Another video posted on Monday shows him at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Beit Shemesh. His presence there was corroborated by multiple Israeli outlets. A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said the Israeli government "asked us if they could park the plane here" and only the flight crew and the pilot were on board the flight. Israel's government plane has routinely left Israeli airspace during rounds of fighting with Iran, presumably for safety. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)
See also: 02.03.2026 Statement by PM Netanyahu at the site of the missile strike in Beit Shemesh (Source: Prime Minister's Office - Israel)
Photo, video
March 3, 2026, 6:03 a.m. ET Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered military leaders at the end of last year to begin planning for a solo strike against Iran to be carried out sometime between April and June. Military commanders were unenthusiastic, one defense official said, because they did not believe that Israel, acting alone, could achieve much more than it had in the 12-day war in June 2025. They were also concerned about their ability to defend against what they expected would be an Iranian response targeting Israeli population centers with ballistic missiles. Once it became clear that the United States would be Israel’s partner in an attack on Iran and it began to amass forces in the region, Israeli generals changed their tune. The shouldering of much of the burden by the Americans - including sending aloft a huge fleet of midair-refueling tankers - made it possible for Israel to deploy its largest air fleet ever on Saturday. That allowed for what proved a devastating assault on Iranian missile launchers. Emboldened by its partnership with the United States, feeling its own military strength, and sensing the weaknesses of its fiercest adversaries, Israel is seizing the new war as an opportunity to pursue its own geopolitical agenda. Now, Israel and the United States own the skies over Iran and are steadily blowing up its ballistic missile infrastructure and arsenal. And when Hezbollah joined the fight, however symbolically - with a single, relatively feeble volley of rockets and drones launched into northern Israel at about 1 a.m. yesterday - Israel had the pretext it needed. It announced a much more significant and long-in-the-making counteroffensive, striking Hezbollah leaders in Beirut and throughout the country. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, analysts said, reflects the fact that it had made plans months ago for such an attack and was waiting for an excuse to execute them. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Lebanon since the fighting began, and 52 were killed yesterday. An Israeli military spokesman announced today morning that troops had indeed seized new areas of southern Lebanon close to the border overnight, but insisted that this was a tactical step and not part of a broader maneuver or invasion. The country’s swaggering self-confidence also carries the possibility of overreach. Ms. Efron, a RAND analyst, said that Israel needed to remember to make political agreements, not just make war. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
03.03.2026 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today rejected claims that Israel pushed the United States into a war with Iran, calling the allegation ridiculous. Israeli leader says US president acts on his own judgment amid report of months-long lobbying. You don't have to drag him into anything, he said. He does what he thinks is right for America. He does also what he thinks is right for future generations, Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News. The New York Times reported that Netanyahu played a central role in steering US President Trump toward a war with Iran, lobbying him personally for months and working to prevent diplomatic talks from derailing plans for a military offensive. The NYT report described the US decision to strike Iran as a significant victory for Netanyahu. According to the report, Netanyahu first raised the prospect of hitting Iran’s missile sites during a visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in December. Two months later, he secured broader US involvement in a campaign aimed at bringing down the Iranian leadership. Israel earlier announced that it launched what it called a preemptive attack against Iran early Saturday under the name Operation Lion’s Roar, and declared a special and immediate state of emergency across the country. The strikes came as talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program were ongoing under Oman’s mediation. A new round of talks in Geneva ended on Thursday. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
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