A flydubai flight bound for Dubai is seen before taking off from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Sept. 30, 2026. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
The news of the day
The investigation into the attack aboard a flydubai flight found that the co-pilot used the cockpit’s emergency axe to attack the pilot and that the incident was a “terrorist act,” the United Arab Emirates’ official media reported Saturday.
The plane, which was carrying 174 people, 166 Israelis and eight crew members, was traveling from the UAE to Israel when it made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
An investigation by Emirati authorities found that the co-pilot “had begun carrying out a terrorist act,” UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said, according to the official WAM news agency. The suspect “assaulted the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe” and attempted “to take control of the aircraft,” Al Shamsi said. The investigation is ongoing “to establish all the circumstances surrounding the incident and its motives,” he added.
The co-pilot’s nationality, as well as his identity, has not been officially disclosed, although a Saudi source told AFP he was Omani. Several international media outlets reported Saturday that the Omani co-pilot who attacked the flydubai captain had previously been barred from flying by authorities in Oman over suspected radicalization.
Why it matters
Israel is scheduled to hold legislative elections on Oct. 27, 2026, to elect the 120 members of the 26th Knesset and determine the coalition government that will succeed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
If the flydubai attack is confirmed to have been a terrorist act, it could affect the political debate in Israel ahead of the elections. Netanyahu has faced scrutiny over reports that he received warnings about a possible attack before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack without passing the information on.
Netanyahu said in late September that there were indications of a possible attack against Israel ahead of the elections. The warning drew criticism from the opposition, which accused him of politicizing security issues.
What to watch out for
A Paris lawyer representing victims and a Canadian Jewish community organization separately called Saturday for the extradition of Hassan Diab from Canada to France. The Lebanese-Canadian academic, who is in his 70s, was sentenced to life in prison in absentia in Paris in 2023 over the 1980 Copernic Street bombing. An arrest warrant has been issued for him.
On Oct. 3, 1980, a bomb planted on a motorcycle near the Copernic Street synagogue in Paris, not far from the Champs-Elysées, killed four people and injured dozens.
“While denying the past and the acts of which he is accused, but refusing to come and explain himself in Paris, Hassan Diab is living quietly in Canada,” Antoine Casubolo Ferro, a Paris lawyer representing 19 civil parties, said in a statement sent to AFP.
A similar call came from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a Canadian Jewish advocacy organization. “There should be extradition and there should be transparency” from the Canadian government, CIJA Senior Vice President and Counsel Richard Marceau told AFP.
Unlike France, which does not extradite its nationals, Canada can extradite individuals on a case-by-case basis.
In other news
In southern Lebanon, the Israeli army demolished the Jabal Amel public intermediate school in Houla (Marjayoun) at dawn Saturday. Other demolitions were also reported in Mansouri (Sour) and Beit Yahoun (Bint Jbeil), while Israeli forces continued to shell villages. Airstrikes targeted Wadi al-Hujeir and Bani Hayyan (Marjayoun), as well as the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa. An Israeli warplane also struck a house on the western outskirts of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) at dawn.
Heavy explosions were heard Saturday morning in Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, after a media outlet linked to the Iran-backed group reported Saudi strikes on the city. At least five explosions were heard in different areas, while witnesses reported seeing two fighter jets launch missiles at the city.
Fighting in southwestern Yemen between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has killed more than 80 people over the past 24 hours. U.N. Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg said Thursday he was “alarmed” by the escalation in fighting in the governorate and by “extremely concerning reports of casualties, damage to infrastructure and road closures preventing residents from leaving the area.”
A young Palestinian was killed in Kobar in the West Bank on Friday, the second person killed in two days in renewed violence involving Israeli settlers. The violence comes as Israel faces growing international criticism over an increase in settler violence, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed ahead of the Oct. 27 legislative elections.
