“I did it to avenge Gaza, I wanted to die as a martyr.” This is the confession that Hammam al-Hammami, the co-pilot accused of attempting to crash a FlyDubai plane at Ben Gurion airport, allegedly made to investigators. The Channel 12 broadcaster reports this, adding that investigators are in possession of the contents of the pilot’s phone. The hope is that from the device it will be possible to trace useful information to reconstruct the still obscure points.
What the pilot did before the attack
The broadcaster also cites two sources, according to whom a Mossad official told Israeli ministers that the attacker has made short visits to several countries hostile to Israel in recent years. “We are checking whether, during these visits, an individual or organizations of any kind recruited him,” the Mossad official was quoted as saying.
Accomplices and instigators
The knot of complicity remains. It is unclear whether the man acted as a lone wolf or not. Also according to the Israeli broadcaster, the Emirati authorities questioned the crew of flight attendants present on the FlyDubai flight, ruling out the possibility that they were accomplices or attempted to help the terrorist pilot.
For US President Donald Trump, Iran was behind the attempted hijacking of the flight. He reiterated this while answering a journalist’s explicit question. However, the American president did not explain the reason for this belief.