The co-pilot of the plane to Tel-Aviv would be a "lone wolf" who intended to crash it

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 change 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, asserted that it was a "jihadist terror attack attempt". This Monday, however, the thesis of 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 Flydubai plane intended to crash the aircraft into Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport or into a skyscraper in the Israeli capital. Early in the morning, as the aircraft approached the border between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, assaulted the plane's pilot, Smit Machchhar, and attempted to take control of the plane, which finally landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar was admitted to receive treatment for serious injuries.

Israeli media explain, citing sources familiar with the investigation, that after stabbing Machchhar, Al-Hammami, an Omani national, intended to continue the flight into Israeli airspace. Once there, he planned to wait for landing authorizations to then crash the aircraft. This is the version he reportedly explained to the investigators himself. In his confession, he also claimed to have had the intention of hijacking and crashing a previous flight, but that he changed his mind because he knew a person on board.

The insinuations by Benjamin Netanyahu's government regarding a possible link to Iran occur in a context of maximum tension between the two states, and in a pre-electoral environment in which the Israeli Prime Minister is widely questioned due to the multiple open military fronts – among which is Tehran, currently frozen but not resolved – that are exhausting the population. Netanyahu is looking to revalidate his presidency in a vote at the end of the month that is key to his political survival, which he reaches also questioned by reports pointing out that he had ignored warnings from the United Arab Emirates that warned 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 emerged that Israel received a list of the plane's crew members 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 with Oman, are banned from entering Israel.

For these reasons, voices are growing that demand an independent commission of inquiry into what went wrong in this case. 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. It is a position that the executive power itself designates. For this reason, the opposition qualifies it as a "farce" and sees a clear parallel with the investigation into the Hamas attacks, for which Netanyahu is also blocking an independent examination.