UAE Confirms Copilot Planned 9/11-Style Attack on Ben Gurion Airport

Good Morning, Israel · Saturday, October 10, 2026 · 8:08

Episode 13 · Saturday, October 10, 2026 · 8:08

UAE Confirms Copilot Planned 9/11-Style Attack on Ben Gurion Airport

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1. UAE Confirms Copilot Planned 9/11-Style Attack on Ben Gurion Airport
2. Israel Slams Nobel Committee Over Peace Prize Award to Navi Pillay
3. Global Condemnation of US Sanctions on International Criminal Court
4. Israeli Officer Killed in Lebanon Vehicle Rollover, Mourned by Family and Comrades
5. Palestinian Elections Delayed Months Due to Worsening Conditions
6. Body of Missing Israeli Hiker Ami Yogev Found on Mount Olympus

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Maya

The Emirates now say the Flydubai copilot wasn't just attacking his captain. He was planning to fly the plane into Ben Gurion Airport.

Daniel

And Israel's ambassador to the U N calls this year's Nobel Peace Prize a disgrace.

Maya

This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Saturday, October tenth. I'm Maya.

Daniel

And I'm Daniel.

Maya

We've followed the Flydubai flight for more than a week. The axe, the cockpit, the words about revenge for Gaza. What's new is the target.

Daniel

Right. The United Arab Emirates has confirmed that the copilot, Hamam al Hamami, planned a suicide attack on Ben Gurion Airport on September thirtieth. Ben Gurion is Israel's main international airport, just outside Tel Aviv.

Maya

And the model he had in mind?

Daniel

September eleventh. According to the U A E, he was inspired by nine eleven.

Maya

So this was a confirmed terror plot, aimed at Israelis, using a passenger jet.

Daniel

Exactly. And it's the Emirates saying so, about a pilot at one of their own airlines. That's a significant thing for a Gulf state to put its name to.

Maya

Remind people how it was stopped.

Daniel

He attacked the captain with an axe. The captain and the passengers fought him off and subdued him. The plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia.

Maya

Passengers fighting for the cockpit. That's the nine eleven echo nobody wanted.

Daniel

Right, except this time they won before the plane got anywhere near its target.

Maya

Where is he now?

Daniel

He's been transferred to the U A E. According to reports, he faces the death penalty there.

Maya

Earlier we heard Israel had a plan to intercept if the plane got close.

Daniel

That's what reports said, and it never came to that. But this confirmation reframes the whole week, including the questions about crew vetting that Israel's Transport Ministry is facing.

Maya

To Oslo now, and a prize that landed badly in Jerusalem.

Daniel

The Nobel Peace Prize went to Navi Pillay, a South African judge. She's a former U N human rights chief, and more recently she led a U N commission of inquiry on Israel and the Palestinians.

Maya

And that commission is the problem.

Daniel

Yes. It claimed there was what it called a reasonable basis for the most extreme charge there is against Israel over the war in Gaza. That's the commission's claim, and Pillay has repeated the accusation herself.

Maya

And the Nobel committee rewarded that work specifically.

Daniel

That's how it's being presented. And U N Secretary General Antonio Guterres congratulated her, praising her human rights advocacy.

Maya

Israel's response?

Daniel

Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel's envoy to the U N, called the prize a disgrace and a dangerous precedent.

Maya

Dangerous how?

Daniel

Because Israel's position is that this war started when Hamas terrorists invaded and took hostages, and that the I D F is fighting a terrorist organization that hides among civilians. Honoring the accusation, without that context, tells terror groups the story can be flipped.

Maya

A peace prize, for work that ignores who started the war.

Daniel

That's the Israeli view. And it's sharpened by a second fight this week.

Maya

The court in The Hague.

Daniel

Right. The United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court. Asset freezes and bans on transactions, though they only take effect after a one hundred and eighty day waiver, which leaves room for negotiations.

Maya

And the reaction?

Daniel

Dozens of countries and bodies, including the E U and the U N, condemned it. The court called the measures an attack on the rule of law. Washington clearly sees it differently, and the six months are the window to watch.

Maya

Now Lebanon. Yesterday we told you about Captain Eliav Haim Tzaflemus, killed when his Humvee rolled over in southern Lebanon.

Daniel

He was laid to rest in Haifa, Israel's big port city in the north. More than a thousand people came.

Maya

Twenty-one years old.

Daniel

Yes. His family and his commanders spoke about his bravery, his dedication, and his kindness. His sister and his girlfriend shared their grief and their memories too.

Maya

A thousand people for a young officer. That says a lot about who he was.

Daniel

It does. And three soldiers from that vehicle were lightly injured.

Maya

Politics. Yair Golan just picked a fight on the one subject most Israelis agree on.

Daniel

Golan chairs the Democrats, Israel's main left-wing party. He called the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, a strategic mistake that didn't serve Israel's interests.

Maya

Seventeen days before an election.

Daniel

Right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pounced. He contrasted it with what he called a government of defeat under Gadi Eisenkot. Eisenkot is a former chief of staff of the I D F, now a leading opposition figure.

Maya

And the Defense Minister joined in.

Daniel

Defense Minister Israel Katz asked why Israel's enemies would want Netanyahu's government to fall, if this is the alternative on offer.

Maya

Did Golan back down?

Daniel

No. He tweeted that Netanyahu missed a strategic opportunity, and that the assassination empowered extremists in Iran.

Maya

So the left is arguing about Iran strategy, and the right is happy to have that argument.

Daniel

Exactly. Security is Netanyahu's home turf, and Golan just walked onto it.

Maya

To Ramallah. The Palestinian elections are slipping.

Daniel

Hussein al Sheikh, the Palestinian Authority's vice president, told France that legislative elections planned for November twenty-eighth will be delayed by several months. He cited worsening conditions, in a letter seen by Reuters.

Maya

Worsening conditions, or worsening polls?

Daniel

Well, Fatah, the party that runs the Palestinian Authority, is divided internally, and it faces a challenge from a rival coalition.

Maya

Why France?

Daniel

France has been pushing the Palestinian Authority on reform and elections. For Israel, the question is who actually holds power across the way, and that answer just got pushed back again.

Maya

Quick round. Haifa, and a missile that ended up somewhere it shouldn't.

Daniel

Three men were charged in Haifa with possessing a stolen I D F Matador, a shoulder-fired missile. They were caught partly because they filmed themselves with it.

Maya

The selfie as confession.

Daniel

Pretty much. Two were arrested September fifth. The third, a Palestinian in Israel illegally, was caught later. Police call the theft highly unusual, even though they've seized more than seven hundred weapons in twenty twenty-six.

Maya

Separately?

Daniel

Four Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank for illegal weapons possession.

Maya

Saudi Arabia is under fire.

Daniel

The kingdom says three of its citizens were killed in attacks on Riyadh Airport on Friday. That brings the week's death toll to six, as the Houthis, the Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen, step up their assaults.

Maya

And Riyadh isn't looking for a ceasefire.

Daniel

According to reports, not until it regains lost territory.

Maya

Meanwhile, Washington and Tehran.

Daniel

President Donald Trump mentioned what he called fruitful discussions with Iran. And Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to mediate.

Maya

Putin as peacemaker. Bold casting.

Daniel

Israel will be watching any of those talks very closely.

Maya

And finally, sad news from Greece.

Daniel

The body of Ami Yogev, a forty-six year old Israeli hiker from Modiin, was found on Mount Olympus. He'd been missing for two and a half weeks.

Maya

When was he last heard from?

Daniel

September twentieth, during his climb. Israeli volunteers and local firefighters found him in a difficult area of the mountain.

Maya

Volunteers who flew out and kept searching. At least his family can bring him home.

Daniel

That's what those searches are for.

Maya

One thing to watch. Any further word from the Emirates on the copilot's case, and whether they formally charge him.

Daniel

Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.

Maya

See you tomorrow morning.