The co-pilot of the plane to Tel Aviv was allegedly a "lone wolf" who intended to crash the plane

BarcelonaThe Israeli government has suggested from the very first moment a supposed role of Iran in the incident that last Wednesday forced a plane covering the route between Dubai and Tel Aviv to modify its path. The authorities are investigating it as an attempted attack. Without evidence, Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a day after the events that Tehran could be behind it, and the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, assured that it was a "jihadist terrorist attack attempt". This Monday, however, the thesis of an Iranian involvement is losing strength: reports from Israel and the United States cited by media such as the BBC point out that the attacker was a "lone wolf".

According to these investigations, the co-pilot accused of attempting to hijack the plane, from the company FlyDubai, intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv or into a skyscraper in the Israeli capital. Early in the morning, when the aircraft was approaching the border of Saudi Arabia with Jordan, the co-pilot, Hamam al Hammami, assaulted the pilot of the aircraft, Smit Machchhar, and tried to take control of the plane, which finally landed in Tabuk, in Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar was admitted to receive treatment for his serious injuries.

Israeli media explain, citing sources familiar with the investigation, that, once Machchhar was stabbed, al Hammami, of Omani nationality, intended to continue with the flight to Israeli airspace. Once there, he planned to wait to receive landing authorizations to, then, crash the craft. This is the version he reportedly told the investigators himself. In his confession, he also reportedly claimed that he had intended to hijack and crash a previous flight, but changed his mind because he knew someone on board.

The insinuations by Benjamin Netanyahu's government about a possible link to Iran occur in a context of maximum tension between the two states, and in a pre-election environment in which the Israeli prime minister is widely questioned for the multiple open military fronts —among which is Tehran, now frozen but not resolved—, which are exhausting the population. Netanyahu seeks to revalidate his presidency in a date with the polls at the end of the month that is key to his political survival, to which he arrives also questioned by the reports pointing out that he had ignored the warnings from Saudi Arabia alerting of the 2023 Hamas attacks ten days before they occurred.

A new setback for Netanyahu

Although at first the incident seemed like it could play in Netanyahu's favor, paving the way for him in the face of an alleged external attack with political intent, the latest developments are turning against him. This Monday it also became known that Israel received a list of the plane's crew before it took off. It is especially relevant for two reasons. On one hand, because the Omani co-pilot had been rejected by the company Oman Air after the country's authorities claimed he had "extremist ideas". On the other hand, because pilots from countries with which Tehran does not maintain diplomatic relations, as is the case of Oman, are banned from entering Israel.

For these reasons, the voices calling for an independent commission of inquiry into what went wrong in this case are growing. But Netanyahu rejects it, and this Sunday he announced that it will be the director of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, who will oversee the investigations. This is a position appointed by the executive power itself. For this reason, the opposition describes it as a "farce" and sees a clear parallel in the investigation of the Hamas attacks, of which Netanyahu is also blocking an independent investigation.