Oct. 3: Eisenkot links PM’s rejection of state inquiry into Oct. 7 to flydubai near disaster

Saudi Arabia reports one wounded by shrapnel from interception of Houthi missile

The Saudi Civil Defense says Saturday that shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile in Ahad Rafidah governorate in the Asir region injured one person, the Saudi state news agency reports.

The missile was fired on Friday by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, it says.

First flight ferrying stranded Israelis back from Dubai lands at Ben Gurion Airport

The first repatriation flight of Israelis stranded in Dubai due to the attempted terror attack on a flydubai flight have landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Crude oil tanker hit by unknown projectile off Oman — UK maritime agency

The master of a crude oil tanker has reported being struck by an unknown projectile 4 nautical miles east of Oman, ⁠the United Kingdom ​Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says.

UKMTO says all crew are reported safe and no environmental impact is currently reported.

US reports name of copilot on flydubai flight as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami

Numerous US media outlets identify the copilot who attempted to carry out a terror attack aboard a flydubai flight full of Israelis as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami.

CNN reports that a since-deleted LinkedIn with that name shows he worked at Oman Air for a seven-year period ending in February 2025, before starting at Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and departing this January 2026. The network says the profile doesn’t mention flydubai but says a source familiar with the matter confirmed it was his account, which also says he studied at Buckinghamshire New University in England.

The report quotes a source at the university telling CNN that he studied remotely at the school for three years, graduating in 2023 with a degree in aviation management.

CNN also says that al-Hammami’s X and Instagram accounts have since been deleted, with the latter sharing two videos after the attack — one of which included footage of Israeli planes that were filmed from other cockpits, before ending with photos of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Jordanian triple agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi,  who carried out a deadly suicide bombing in 2009 targeting a CIA base in Afghanistan.

The other post reportedly includes an AI image of Islam’s three holiest cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, while a defiant poem is recited in the background.

Man, three women and girl said killed in Israeli strike in Gaza City; no comment from IDF

Five people, including a girl, were killed in an Israeli strike early today on an apartment in western Gaza City, in the Strip’s north, according to the city’s Shifa Hospital and Hamas’s civil defense agency. The IDF does not immediately comment.

Palestinian media reports the dead include a young man, a mother and her daughter and two other adult women. The man is identified as Bilal Awda, 21. The other dead, whose ages are not given, reportedly include Mary Abu Daud and her daughter Misa; Yasmeen al-Boubou, who is identified as a doctor; and another woman who has not yet been identified.

Footage from the scene shows flames and rubble, with one graphic video showing a first responder retrieving the body of a man from the debris.

????ارتقاء 5 اشخاص (4 نساء بينهم سيدة وابنتها من الطائفة المسيحية وشاب) اثر استهداف الطابق الارضي من عمارة الاصالة غرب مدينة غزة , عرف منهم:-

1.ماريا حافظ ابو داوود/مسيحية
2.وابنتها ميسا ابو داوود/مسيحية
3.دكتورة ياسمين البوبو
4.محمد ابو عودة "٢١عام"
5.سيدة مازالت مجهولة. pic.twitter.com/y5C3tlc2RI

— معتصم زقوت (@flstyn36876) October 3, 2026

Katz says he ordered cargo planes to leave for Dubai to retrieve Israeli passengers’ luggage

Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered cargo planes to depart for Dubai to retrieve the luggage of Israeli passengers, with the first cargo plane set to fly out within the hour, according to a statement from his office.

Passengers are forbidden to bring their luggage onto the special repatriation flights leaving Dubai following Wednesday’s hijacking attempt on flydubai Flight 1073. The attempt led the Dubai-based airline to suspend its Tel Aviv route.

The rescue flights are being operated by Israeli carriers El Al, Arkia and Israir. Arkia and Israir carried out the first rescue flights overnight.

Iran says it executed man convicted of firing military-grade weapon at cops during January protests

Iran says it has executed a man convicted of a raft of charges including firing a military-grade weapon at police officers during anti-government protests earlier this year.

Siavash Jamshidi was accused of targeting security personnel during mass demonstrations that peaked in January and which the regime brutally suppressed, killing thousands of people.

“Jamshidi was sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh through brandishing and firing a firearm, as well as conspiracy and collusion against national security,” Iran’s judiciary says, using the legal term moharebeh to mean “waging war against God.”

The judiciary’s Mizan Online website says Jamshidi was also found guilty of offenses unrelated to the protests, including “fraud, making threats, theft, possession and carrying of an illegal military-grade weapon.”

Other charges included “complicity in kidnapping, brandishing a weapon to intimidate, and intentional infliction of bodily harm,” the website says.

Mizan says Jamshidi was “active” during the demonstrations, which were sparked in December last year by grievances over living costs in Iran, but peaked on January 8 and 9 with huge rallies.

Iranian authorities have stepped up executions linked to the protests, after last year executing 1,639 people, the largest number in any year since 1989, according to the NGOs Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty.

Amnesty International says Iran carries out more executions than any country except China.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Investigation launched into assault, vandalism near Nablus after reported settler attack, police say

People identified as settlers are filmed smashing a car in the Palestinian town of Osarin, near Nablus, on October 3, 2023. (Screen captures: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Police say they have launched an investigation after receiving a report about assault and material damage in the Nablus-area Palestinian town of Osarin, where Palestinian media said settlers attacked olive pickers and stoned homes and vehicles.

Officers accompanied by the IDF have entered the town, in the West Bank’s Area B, and begun gathering evidence and testimony for the investigation, police say.

The IDF, in its own response, says troops were dispatched to Osarin following “footage and reports of Palestinians and property being attacked by Israeli rioters in the area.”

The soldiers identified the damage caused by the settlers and searched for the rioters, “who had fled before the troops reached the scene,” the military says.

“The IDF strongly condemns such incidents and emphasizes that they harm defensive activities in the area,” the military adds.

British-Iranian man arrested over suspected terror plot at US-run airbase is released on bail, UK says

British police officers stand at a checkpoint near RAF Fairford airbase, in Fairford, England September 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A dual British-Iranian national who was arrested in London Thursday over a suspected terror plot against a US-run airbase in England, has been released on bail, Britain’s Counter Terrorism Policing agency says.

The agency adds that it has concluded searches of two properties in London’s Borough of Westminster, where the 25-year-old suspect was arrested.

The investigation into events at the base, which the US used to bomb Iran, is ongoing, CTP says.

North Korea says it tested intermediate-range, AI-assisted ballistic missile

This photo provided by the North Korean government, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech during a national meeting against the coronavirus, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on August 10, 2022. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, says her country has tested an intermediate-range AI-assisted missile, after the South Korean military said Pyongyang had fired a ballistic missile that flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) toward the sea off its east coast.

Kim Yo Jong, who is a director of North Korea’s ruling party, says in a statement that a drill of a “strategic weapon” was conducted toward the sea off its east coast using the missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the drill which was carried out by “a firepower sub-unit undertaking an exclusive special mission,” his sister said.

Citing statements by Seoul and Tokyo regarding how far the missile flew, she said the results showed the limitations of Japanese and South Korean tracking capability.

“Whenever we applied the wave-like trajectory mode to missiles, the enemy failed to track the targets from their first skip points,” she says, without showing any evidence.

South Korea and Japan also “should acknowledge the speed of the missile,” she says, without disclosing the speed. The missile was also capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude with artificial intelligence technology applied, she adds.

“In other words, this means that there is no way to avoid this attack,” she says.

North Korea has launched missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year. Pyongyang has sometimes said it was testing new types of weapons systems. Some of the tests have come after North Korea protested joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

The launch came after Kim Yo Jong issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Seoul’s demand for an apology for what it said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified area between the two Koreas.

Two Iranian men charged with plotting terror attack against Manchester Jews appear in court

Two Iranian men who were charged with plotting a terror attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, northwestern England, appear in a London court.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, were charged on Friday after being arrested in September, with police alleging the men were “in contact with an overseas third party who may be in Iran in relation to the plot.”

Their arrests come nearly a year after a deadly knife and gun attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester where worshippers had gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Prosecutor Mark Luckett tells the court the two men were plotting to use a “homemade explosive device” and that their potential targets included the Heaton Park synagogue targeted last year and the Jewish Museum in Manchester.

“The defendants were observed carrying out, what the prosecution say, is a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community,” Luckett tells Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The men are remanded into custody and are set to next appear at the Old Bailey criminal court in London for a hearing on October 23.

The court was told both men arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel from France on small boats, a route used by thousands of asylum seekers every year that has fueled anti-immigration sentiment in Britain.

Salehi was granted asylum in 2023 after arriving in 2020, while Ahmadyan arrived in 2023 and has a pending asylum claim, the court hears.

The past year has seen a spate of attacks in the British capital targeting Jewish or Israel-linked locations, with an Iran-linked group claiming some of the attacks, including the arson of Jewish charity ambulances in London.

Road crash in Nigeria’s Plateau state kills 20 people

A multi-vehicle crash killed at least 20 people in Nigeria’s north-central state of Plateau, the road agency says.

The crash involved four vehicles on Friday, and preliminary findings indicate brake failure was the likely cause, according to the Federal Road Safety Commission.

The crash occurred along the Hawan Kibo-Jos route, a major thoroughfare connecting Plateau to Abuja, the capital.

Road accidents are frequent in Africa’s most populous country, in part due to poor road conditions and lax enforcement of traffic laws.

Explosions heard in Sanaa as Houthis report ‘Saudi aggression’; fire seen near Riyadh oil site

Loud explosions were heard in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday, as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels report airstrikes in the area by Saudi forces.

One AFP correspondent reports hearing at least five blasts in different areas, while another reports seeing two warplanes firing missiles on the city.

Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-affiliated media outlet, reports “Saudi aggression” against the capital, without providing details on the targets or casualties. The channel also reported earlier Saturday that missile strikes hit the telecommunications network in Yemen’s northwestern governorate of Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

Meanwhile, a witness tells Reuters that a large plume of smoke and fire could be seen rising in the vicinity of an Aramco facility in Riyadh.

Saudi authorities do not immediately confirm the fire at the state oil facility, and Aramco does not immediately respond to a request for comment. There is no immediate claim of responsibility.

After several years of calm, Yemen was plunged back into civil war in July, pitting the Iran-backed Houthis, who control most of northwest Yemen including Sanaa, against Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

IDF says 8 soldiers wounded in southern Lebanon vehicular collision

Eight soldiers were lightly wounded in a car crash in southern Lebanon yesterday, according to the military.

The IDF says the circumstances of the apparent accident are under investigation. According to an initial probe, two army vehicles crashed into each other near the Lebanese village of Rab al-Thalathine, injuring the soldiers.

Six of the wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Iranian men accused of plotting chlorine bomb attack on Manchester synagogue targeted last Yom Kippur

Armed police officers stand with their weapons outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025. (Paul Currie / AFP)

Two Iranian men conducted surveillance of a Manchester synagogue that was the site of a deadly terror attack a year ago as part of a plot to bomb it this year, a prosecutor says.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, researched attacking the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester in northwest England and the Jewish Museum in nearby Cheetham Hill, the court is told.

Ahmadyan and Salehi were arrested last month and charged Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.

Neither enter a plea during an appearance in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where Judge Nina Tempia orders them held until an October 23 appearance at the Central Criminal Court in London.

Prosecutor Mark Luckett says the duo were directed by a third person believed to be in Iran who coordinated plans and provided instructions on making a homemade chlorine bomb.

The defendants were observed carrying out “a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community,” Luckett says.

The Heaton Park synagogue was the site of a terrorist attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, on October 2, 2025, when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, crashed his car into the gates and then began a knife attack while wearing a fake suicide belt.

Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed by the terrorist and three other men were seriously wounded.

Ahmadyan and Salehi entered the UK without authorization in the past six years after crossing the English Channel by boat, the court is told. Salehi was granted asylum and Ahmadyan has a pending asylum claim.

Houthis say Saudi Arabia launched 26 strikes on Sanaa today

Yemen’s Houthis say Saudi forces have launched 26 strikes on capital Sanaa today, the group’s media reports, as the country’s revived civil war escalates further.

Al-Masirah TV says “Saudi enemy aircraft” targeted the Houthi-held capital, without providing details on casualties. Saudi forces hit Sanaa for the first time in years on Thursday, Houthi media reported.

Freed hostage shares photos from Gaza of ‘Dr. Hamas’ operating on her hand shot on Oct. 7

A photo obtained by the IDF that was shared by freed Hamas hostage Emily Damari on October 3, 2026, shows her at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital after she was abducted to the coastal enclave during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror atrocities in southern Israel. (IDF via @emilydamari on Instagram)

Freed hostage Emily Damari shares pictures of herself from Gaza that she says were taken immediately after she was abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists to the coastal enclave during the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel.

In the images posted to Instagram, Damari is seen lying on a hospital bed at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City with a head covering and blood-stained piece of clothing over her entire body that the terrorists apparently made her put on, as “Dr. Hamas” operates on her hand that was hit by gunfire.

“I was kidnapped together with the best friend I could ask for, Gali Berman, who came to be with me during the most frightening moments of my life. In these moments I rediscovered the term ‘mortal fear,'” she says.

“I’m in a disgusting room filled with blood, a corpse is on the ground near me. A ‘doctor’ approaches and presents himself as Dr. Hamas, while near him are another 10 monsters with AK-47s [pointed] at my head and I am just praying to God that he will protect me in this situation,” Damari recalls.

Diplomat says flydubai pilot was subject to standard security check, amid questions over vetting

A regional official and a person familiar with the matter say the co-pilot who attempted to crash a flydubai plane full of Israelis had been barred from flying by Oman over concerns that he had adopted extremist views.

The copilot was later hired by UAE-based airline flydubai, the person says. It wasn’t immediately clear to what extent the copilot was vetted. The Gulf diplomat says he had undergone standard security checks before being hired, but it appears that the checks focused on whether he had been convicted of criminal charges and didn’t go deeper into examining his background for potential signs of radicalization.

The regional official also says security agencies from four regional countries are working to establish the co-pilot’s motives, aided by the United States and other Western governments. The Gulf diplomat says the investigation, which hasn’t concluded, hasn’t found any connections with terrorist groups, suggesting that the co-pilot acted on his own.

The regional official says the co-pilot was born in the UAE and his mother is Syrian. He obtained Omani nationality from his father, also an Omani national. The regional official also says the copilot had traveled to Syria, with no details.

Israel reportedly received list of flydubai Flight 1703 crew members in advance

Israel received in advance the list of crew members aboard flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv that the Omani copilot attempted to crash, the Haaretz daily reports.

The newspaper cites security sources as saying the Transportation Ministry’s security department and Mossad are responsible for vetting non-Israeli flight crews and warning if there are any concerns.

Asked to comment, the Israel Tax Authority — which under a 2023 law houses the center tasked with screening travelers to Israel — confirms to Haaretz that it received the list from flydubai, while the Transportation Ministry doesn’t respond to whether it got the list and examined it.

Settlers filmed trying to break into Palestinian family’s home during Shabbat

Settlers were filmed earlier today attempting to break into the home of a Palestinian family in Khirbet Marajem, near the village of Duma south of Nablus. Footage shows two men, one of them armed, attempting to force their way into the family’s home and break down the door.

In one video, the armed man can be heard shouting, “Come here, I’ll fuck you,” while members of the family inside curse back at him. After failing to enter the house, the two eventually left.

According to the Torat Tzedek organization, an organization made up of activists who come to assist local residents, the two men earlier attacked a teenager in the Duma area before showing up at the house.

שמחת תורה?

בסביבות 14:35 הגיעו מתנחלים לדומא ותקפו באלימות נער.
אותם מתנחלים המשיכו לח'רבת אלמראג'ם, תקפו את בני המשפחה שישבו בחוץ וניסו לפרוץ למתחם.
חצי לבוש צבאי חצי מכופתר
והנשק? pic.twitter.com/M2zaCGHKJW

— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) October 3, 2026

لقطات وثقتها كاميرات المراقبة تظهر قيام مستوطنين بمهاجمة منزل المواطن نايف مسلم في خربة المراجم والاعتداء عليه وتحطيم محتوياته pic.twitter.com/worhfLPLcl

— العربية (@AlArabiya) October 3, 2026

Plumber says he seized flydubai copilot by the neck to stop him from smashing plane console

Passenger Yaniv Hayun, one of the Israelis who helped subdue a flydubai copilot who on September 30, 2026, sought to crash a plane full of Israelis, in an interview on October 3, 2026. (Channel 12 screenshot)

The plumber who prevented flydubai Flight 1073 from nosediving after the Omani copilot attacked the captain gives a blow-by-blow account to Channel 12 news of the terror attack, explaining how he rushed to the cockpit after first hearing Tali Manes’s screams about a stabbing and was hurled to the ground of the aircraft as it plunged and shook violently.

“At some stage I was able to get up when the plane balanced out a little,” Yaniv Hayun recalls, saying he understands that the plane had some kind of automatic stabilizing technology. “Then I went to the door [of the cockpit]. A crew member was standing there, apparently a pilot, as he had on a white shirt… I moved him and opened the door. He didn’t resist. It was a little difficult [to open] because the Indian pilot was lying on the door. The terrorist was bent over with his knees on the controls between the [two empty] pilot seats in the cockpit and was trying to break the equipment.”

Hayun says that he then grabbed the copilot by the neck and moved him aside, before other Israelis managed to tie him up. He reiterates that the copilot, immobilized, shouted in English, “Kill me.”

He adds that after shoving the terrorist aside, he could see through the cockpit window that the plane was headed toward the ground, though “not in a very steep direction,” before he grabbed the controls to help stabilize the aircraft. “A few seconds later,” he says, one of the off-duty pilots on board took the controls.

“I went back to the terrorist. A little later we beat him so he wouldn’t resist any more,” Hayun adds. “He tried to resist.”

Hayun says he stayed in the cockpit for some time, and a second off-duty pilot arrived at the door. The pilot at the controls indicated that it was safe to let him enter, and he took the second seat. Hayun says he made sure that the two were indeed flying the plane responsibly, and were communicating to ground authorities and informing them that there were injured people aboard.

He also says that the passengers were wary of crew members after the incident, not knowing whether they were linked to the attacker, and kept a close eye on them for the remainder of the flight.

Asked how he was able to act with such bravery, and whether this had something to do with his army service, Hayun, who is extremely good-humored and likable, says, “I was the closest to the flames [in the army]: In the kitchen.” Prompted, “You were an army cook?,” he demurs: “I would distribute the food.”

He says he’ll certainly fly again, but is not sure he’ll fly flydubai again. He also says somebody has offered to give him private flying lessons.

Asked when he’ll go back to work, Hayun says he’d like to on Sunday but his truck won’t start. “I swear it’s true,” he says, and then claims he tried to pull the steering wheel rather than turn it when he got into it on his return home. “When I see something circular [for steering], I’m not used to it,” he jokes.

Asked why he has a truck at all, he explains, “It’s a sewage truck.”

“I’m not an ordinary plumber, I’m a high-class plumber,” he laughs.

Report: Israel rushing to check whether other pilots from enemy states are flying the Israel route; Iranian, Syrian and Iraqi pilots have done so

Israel is reportedly “racing against time” to determine whether there are pilots from enemy and hostile states flying foreign airlines in and out of Ben Gurion Airport, in the wake of the thwarted terror attack by Omani copilot Hamam al-Hammami on flydubai Flight FZ1073 on Wednesday.

In recent years, pilots from Iran, Syria and Iraq and other enemy states have flown foreign airliners into and out of Israel, Channel 12 news reports, citing unnamed professional sources. It reports that these pilots have dual citizenship, with a second passport presumably issued by a non-enemy state.

The report says other unnamed international authorities are helping Israel to tackle this security breach.

Liberman, coalition bash Yair Golan for backing government with Ra’am

Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats party, attends an election campaign event in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, September 28, 2026. (Sharon Leibel/Flash90)

Democrats leader Yair Golan says he supports forming a government with Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am party, drawing sharp criticism from both the coalition and his prospective partner, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman.

“Jewish-Arab partnership in government is a positive thing,” Golan tells Channel 12 news. “That is absolutely our future. They represent 21 percent of the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Golan acknowledges that his fellow “change bloc” leaders Liberman, B’Yachad chairman Naftali Bennett and Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot have not agreed to govern with Ra’am, saying he “will continue trying to persuade” them, while suggesting their positions could shift after the election.

“What people do before elections…everyone needs to bring in their voters,” Golan says, arguing that afterward they will face a “very simple dilemma” over forming an alternative government.

The hawkish Liberman rejects the notion, saying, “There will be no coalition with the Arab parties,” while accusing Golan of trying to regain Arab support after the Democrats backed the disqualification of Balad chairman Sami Abou Shehadeh. Both Liberman and Golan were among opposition chiefs who last week agreed not to campaign against each other ahead of the election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party says Golan’s comments prove the opposition intends to form “a left-wing government with the Arab parties,” while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims he is “saying out loud what his partners Eisenkot and Liberman are trying in every way to conceal.”

The dispute highlights a central obstacle facing the opposition ahead of the October 27 election, as current polling leaves the Zionist opposition without a path to a 61-seat majority without Ra’am, even as several of its leaders have ruled out an alliance with the party.

Likud and its allies have no clear path to a majority and have made the prospect of a government reliant on Arab parties a central line of attack against Eisenkot and his rivals, echoing past campaigns by Netanyahu.

Report: Omani copilot had flown the Dubai-Tel Aviv route several times before his Wednesday terror attack; Israel knew ‘nothing about him’

Omani copilot Hamam al-Hammami reportedly piloted flydubai planes on the Dubai-Tel Aviv route several times before his attempt to crash FZ1073, and Israeli authorities are checking whether he flew the route days before his terror attack.

Flydubai gave Israeli authorities the names of the flight crew, including al-Hammami, as required ahead of Wednesday’s flight, Channel 12 news reports, and the list of names raised no security concerns.

Israel was not aware that al-Hammami had been barred from flying altogether by his previous Oman Air employer because of concerns over his radicalization, the report says.

It adds that the Transportation Ministry, which is legally required to oversee foreign airlines’ vetting of pilots flying to Israel, does not do so, and the Shin Bet and Mossad security and intelligence agencies do not check the backgrounds of foreign pilots either.

Where the flight crews of foreign airlines are concerned, Ben Gurion Airport has been “a lawless zone,” the report charges, citing unnamed security sources.

“The colossal security screw-up” exposed by Wednesday’s terror attack is “as large as the miracle” by which the pilot and several heroic passengers overcame al-Hammami and saved the 180 people on the plane, the sources say. They also compare the incident to October 7, 2023, when “all the facts were out in the open, and nobody looked.” The Omani pilot planned the attack for a long time, “and yet Israel didn’t have a scrap of information on him.”

Israeli investigators have yet to be given access to al-Hammami, who is under investigation in the United Arab Emirates, and are relying on material conveyed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the report notes.

‘Had one last fight left in me’: Flydubai captain tells Netanyahu that copilot was praying before attacking him

Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dramatic details about the attack by his Omani co-pilot, and says that Hamam al-Hammami asked to pray during Wednesday’s flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

“Suddenly, after four or five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head,” Machchhar says.

“My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft.

“But after that, the blows kept coming, one after the other,” says the pilot, who is in the UAE recovering from his wounds. “That’s when I realized it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.”

Machchhar says he tried to stop the copilot, but he could barely see anything because of the blows to his head: “I was completely blurred out.”

“The next feeling that I had is that the aircraft is sharply going down,” he continues, cautioning that his memory is still spotty.

Machchhar says that his initial attempt to open the cockpit door was thwarted by Hammami. While lying on the cockpit floor, he remembers hearing people screaming.

“I had one last fight left in me,” he says. “Call it personal or call it for people, but let’s say, I did that. If I don’t do it, I’m going to die. That’s when I pushed against everything, I gave everything that I had, and just went for the door and opened the door and people were waiting to pounce back, and take control, and the rest is what you know sir.”

Netanyahu invites flydubai pilot and Indian PM Modi to light Independence Day torch

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invites Indian flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to light a torch at Israel’s next Independence Day celebrations.

Netanyahu does not have the authority to unilaterally determine who will light a torch at next year’s traditional ceremony.

Under the government-established selection process, torch lighters are chosen through a public advisory committee and subsequently approved through the designated ministerial process, which under Netanyahu’s recent governments has been led by Likud loyalist Miri Regev.

“You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel,” Netanyahu tells Machchhar during a phone call. “And you are a hero of the entire world.”

Man seriously wounded in Jaffa shooting

A roughly 20-year-old man was shot in Jaffa this evening, according to first responders.

He was rushed to Wolfson Hospital in Holon in serious condition, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.

Officers are gathering evidence on the scene and scanning the area for suspects, police say.

Flydubai captain says he opened cockpit door after copilot blocked crew from using code to open it from outside

Wounded flydubai Flight 1073 Captain Smit Machchhar is taken off the plane after it made an emergency landing in Tabuk, northwetern Saudi Arabia, on September 30, 2026. (Channel 12 screenshot, from footage used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar gives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a detailed account of how he managed to open the cockpit door while under attack from his Omani copilot, a crucial move that allowed passengers to stop Hamam al-Hammami from crashing the plane.

“The door from the inside has a twist-to-open mechanism,” says Machchhar during a phone call with the prime minister.

“From the outside it can only be opened with a code,” he explains. “My colleagues from outside were trying to put in with the code, but the guy was not allowing to open the code.”

Machchar says that “the only way to open the door was to reach the knob, and like any other knob just to twist it open, and it opens on its own.”

“It was a short quick twist,” he remembers.

“Once I had my hands on the knob, I guess I twisted it and I opened it,” says Machchar.

“It was twist of fate,” says Netanyahu, “and a twist of faith.”

Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted Aramco facility in Riyadh with missiles and drones

Flames burn at a facility belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco south of Riyadh on October 3, 2026. (AFP)

Yemen’s Houthis say that they attacked an Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, with ballistic missiles and drones.

There is no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabia.

IDF says it targeted senior Hamas official Ali al-Amoudi in Gaza City strike that killed 5 people

Palestinians inspect the site of an early morning Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, October 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The IDF confirms carrying out a strike targeting senior Hamas official Ali al-Amoudi overnight, while acknowledging that the results of the strike are still under review.

Palestinian media reported that the strike in Gaza City killed five people, including four women.

The military says that the strike targeted Amoudi while he was residing in an apartment “used for terror activity, inside a residential building,” and that it took steps to “minimize harm to civilians as much as possible.”

“This is further evidence of the Hamas terror group’s hiding among the civilian population and its cynical use of them as human shields and to advance terrorist plots,” the army says.

Amoudi, the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, had served as former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s “right-hand man and personal aide and was involved in decision-making for the October 7 massacre,” the military says.

The military says that in 1993, Amoudi was involved in the murder of four Israelis in the West Bank, and in 1994, was involved in an incident in Ramallah in which Shin Bet agent Noam-Menachem Cohen was killed.

“Today, Amoudi is the most senior Hamas figure in the Gaza Strip and is directly involved in Hamas terror activity and in rebuilding the group for war,” the army says, adding that he was targeted to “remove the threat.”

Ireland abruptly ends press conference as Israeli reporters grill coach about flydubai attack, alleged monkey taunts

Ireland’s head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson speaks during a press conference ahead of the Nations League soccer match between Republic of Ireland and Israel in Backa Topola, Serbia, October 3, 2026. (AP/Darko Vojinovic)

The Republic of Ireland’s press conference on the eve of their second Nations League soccer match against Israel in Serbia is cut short as head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson fields questions from Israeli journalists.

Ireland beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match on Tuesday following a turbulent build-up in which the Irish players voted to fulfill the fixture despite unease among the team over the war in Gaza, which was started by the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.

During that match the Irish players wore armbands and pointedly lowered their heads while the Israeli national anthem played. There were no handshakes between the captains before kick-off.

The return leg takes place on Sunday in Backa Topola after the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) refused to host the match at home for security reasons.

One journalist asks Hallgrimsson for his thoughts about the incident on Wednesday when an Indian pilot was attacked by the co-pilot during a flydubai flight from the UAE to Israel, which Emirati judicial authorities and Israeli officials have described as a “terrorist act.”

“What do you say about the people that you support? Their ideology is based on murder,” the journalist asks.

“Just this week, one of them tried to kill 170 Israeli passengers, including 27 innocent children and thousands of others.”

An Irish team press officer intervened, saying: “We are not doing any questions like this today. We are doing football questions.”

Another journalist then addresses the Ireland manager, saying: “Your players call our players monkeys during the match…,” only to be immediately interrupted by an FAI official repeatedly insisting “that is completely untrue,” while the microphone is taken away from the reporter.

The Irish delegation then brings the press conference to an abrupt end.

French far-right leader Le Pen expresses ‘complete confidence’ in top ally amid antisemitism claims

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says she has full confidence in her top ally Jordan Bardella, accused by an investigative news website of making antisemitic comments in 2013, in a statement published Saturday.

“I have complete confidence in Jordan,” Le Pen says in the brief statement published by La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. Bardella, tipped to be prime minister if Le Pen wins the presidency, has denied the allegations.

Firefighters battle blaze at waste dump near northern Druze town of Isfiya

Residents of the western part of Isfiya, a Druze town in northern Israel, are told to stay indoors as 20 firefighting crews battle flames and smoke at a nearby waste dump.

The commander of the Haifa Fire Station, Kobi Mizrahi, issues a statement saying it will take several hours to put out the flames, but that there is no immediate danger to residents.

Isfiya is located in the Carmel mountain range, where a disastrous fire broke out in 2010 that burned more than 50,000 dunams (12,300 acres) and claimed the lives of 44 people, mainly prison service cadets on a bus that became trapped in the blaze.

Winter says he will demand ultra-Orthodox serve in IDF, but will still join coalition with non-Zionist Haredi party

People of Israel party chairman Ofer Winter speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, September 2, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Head of the right-wing People of Israel party Ofer Winter asserts he will insist that ultra-Orthodox men serve in the army if he joins a right-wing government after the upcoming elections, but says that he nevertheless would still serve in a government alongside Haredi factions.

Speaking to Channel 12 news, the hawkish former IDF general says that those who serve in the IDF will receive benefits and those who do not “will not be eligible for extras,” adding that those who refuse to comply with military service requirements will be subject to sanctions.

But although he says that the head of the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party, Yitzhak Goldknopf, is not a Zionist, Winter states he would nevertheless sit in a government with UTJ and expresses the hope that such a government would not be dependent on ultra-Orthodox votes in Knesset so as to pass a new law to draft Haredi men into the army.

“We will establish in law the issue of service in the State of Israel. Whoever serves the country will receive. Someone who serves more, someone who serves in combat, will get much more. Someone who doesn’t serve won’t be eligible for extras,” says Winter.

“I won’t join [a government] until this issue is sorted out. I will go to war on this,” he adds, while refusing to rule out sitting with the Haredi parties.

Asked how such a coalition could be formed given the ultra-Orthodox refusal to countenance obligatory service, the neophyte politician claims he will know how to wield a veto in government just as the Haredi parties do.

Winter also describes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a sucker,” using the Yiddish word freier, for having accepted what he claimed was the defense establishment’s wrong-headed tactics for invading Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and for what he describes as going along with the practice of sending Qatari money to Hamas.

Despite this, he says he would sit in a coalition headed by Netanyahu and categorically rules out joining a government led by Gadi Eisenkot and his Yashar party, or any of the other parties opposed to Netanyahu’s leadership.

“Netanyahu was part of the concept. I’m not embarrassed to say this,” Winter said of Netanyahu’s willingness to accept the IDF’s plan to storm into Gaza after the October 7 attacks.

“The heads of the system were pushing this perspective; my criticism of the prime minister and decision-makers was that they were the freiers who accepted it,” he says, adding, “Netanyahu is a type of person who doesn’t demand of people what he wants them to do.”

Winter also opines that Netanyahu wouldn’t have acted differently even if he had been awoken earlier on before the Hamas assault unfolded, as the premier has repeatedly claimed.

Asked how he could still sit in a government with Netanyahu despite such criticism, Winter says, “I need to choose a side. I’m on the right-wing, my positions are right-wing… I have criticism of Netanyahu over October 7 and his behavior on lots of things, but that doesn’t mean there is a much better alternative.”

Winter also repeats his previously espoused position for mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, saying it’s “in the national interest” while adding that he will “push as hard as possible for this to happen.”

He also says that Jewish settlements could then be built in the territory.

Eisenkot links Netanyahu’s rejection of state inquiry into Oct. 7 to near disaster on flydubai flight

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot tears into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the terrorist attack aboard a flydubai flight full of Israelis, linking the near-disaster to the premier’s refusal to impanel a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led atrocities.

“Those who fear the word ‘responsibility’ and flee from investigating the truth since October 7… are endangering Israel every day with failures and great disasters,” Eisenkot writes on X. “We got proof of this just this past week, when 180 Israelis were saved thanks to ingenuity and supreme heroism in what is being exposed as a terrible failure under the October 7 government.”

“The grave discoveries about the conduct of the Transportation Ministry and the revelation that pilots from enemy states landed in Israel are further proof that the State of Israel is ‘managed’ by a group of people who aren’t qualified or worthy,” Eisenkot adds.