Netanyahu: We'll know if Iran behind attack

Netanyahu clarified that Israel had no warning or specific intelligence indication about the incident, and that the investigation is ongoing. He said "we will know very soon if Iran had a connection to this, but I cannot say that before the investigation is complete. We will get to the root of this attacker, whether he had partners and whether Iran stood behind him. I think we will discover that very soon. It's too early to say."

Netanyahu noted that the attacker is currently being interrogated in Saudi Arabia, and Israel will follow the investigation and "may also participate in it." In Israel, the incident has been officially defined as a terror attack, and the Mossad and Shin Bet are investigating the Omani pilot.

In the Fox News interview, Netanyahu said there were 30 children among the passengers, and that in the seconds when the plane plunged downward, passengers thought they would not survive. He described how they prayed, believing they were leaving this world.

Netanyahu praised Yaniv Hiyun, who entered the cockpit, saying he acted with "incredible bravery." He recounted: "I asked him, 'How did you do it?' and he said, 'I simply had to do it.' His family was there, 174 passengers, most of them Israelis, were there. He had to save them."

Netanyahu concluded the interviews by saying, "If your plane is hijacked next time, make sure there's an Israeli sitting next to you."

Netanyahu spoke yesterday with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, who called him after the incident, inquired about the passengers' wellbeing and asked how he could help. According to Netanyahu, they discussed flight security and agreed that "we will put the entire security issue in order." Netanyahu said bin Zayed agreed that Israel would join the investigation of the incident.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia updated that the condition of the Indian pilot, Captain Sumit Machechar, who was stabbed in the cockpit, is defined as stable. The pilot is hospitalized at a hospital in the city of Tabuk, and the diplomatic mission is in continuous contact with his family and with medical personnel. Netanyahu tweeted on his X account: "I salute the Indian pilot, Captain Sumit Machechar, for his extraordinary courage. Despite being stabbed and seriously wounded, he fought the attacker, opened the cockpit door and enabled passengers and crew to subdue the attacker — thereby preventing a major aviation disaster."

In the Israeli security establishment, the case is being treated with utmost severity and defined as a serious security failure requiring swift and comprehensive lessons. A senior security source said this was a first-degree intelligence and security failure that could have ended in a severe humanitarian and aviation disaster. From an initial investigation by the Shin Bet, it emerges that there were no advance warnings of the attack, and the central failure lies in the very fact that an active pilot for a company flying to Israel turned out to be a terrorist.