An EgyptAir pilot, Osama Mansour, posted footage showing an El Al aircraft flying over Italian airspace. The video features audio from a speech by former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declaring: “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and violence for violence.” Comments on the video warned “this is just the beginning.”
Sadat did use similar language in a 1973 speech during the Yom Kippur War, when he said in English: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” The Egyptian pilot’s video comes amid heightened fears of aircraft hijackings, particularly after the attempted crash by an Omani terrorist on a Fly Dubai flight from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport.
On September 30, about an hour before the scheduled landing in Israel, the co-pilot on Fly Dubai Flight 1073, Muhamad al-Hamami, attacked the captain with an axe, diverted the controls, and sent the plane into a dive of some 5,200 meters. Israeli passengers and crew members overpowered the terrorist, and the plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
The serious incident has revived sharp questions about security on foreign flights to Israel. A State Comptroller report from May 2024 already pointed to gaps in security levels on foreign airline aircraft entering Israel, and recommended developing a comprehensive policy on aviation security. In addition, in the months before the incident, Shin Bet chief David Zini warned that security on flights from Dubai was inadequate.
Last week, the Shin Bet issued warnings in three documents that charter flights are not being inspected as required, and on Sunday (October 4), an internal Transportation Ministry document pointed to gaps in foreign flight security. Following that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a thorough review of all aspects of foreign civilian aviation security to Israel.