Flydubai case: Did Israeli official's old report flag 'flaw' leading to Sep 30 attack?

Amid reports of Benjamin Netanyahu ordering a probe into foreign flights entering Israel after the September 30 flydubai 'terrorist attack', fresh allegations have emerged that another Israeli official had issued similar orders two years ago, which had revealed a major flaw.

This official was Matanyahu Englman, the State Comptroller, who—like Netanyahu now—had ordered the National Security Council to conduct an internal probe into the same matter due to the security situation in the country after the October 7 attack, among other reasons.

According to an article from Israeli media outlet Maariv, the classified State Comptroller's report had highlighted a "flaw in communication between the bodies and ministries", but none of the recommendations in that report were implemented over the years.

"For two years now, there has an information centre for every aircrew member arriving in the country. This centre is subordinate to the Tax Authority in the Ministry of Finance."

The Maariv article noted that despite the ongoing blame game between state authorities and security agencies over responsibility for the violence onboard the flydubai flight FZ1073, no one had contacted that information centre to find out the identity of the pilots onboard.

The blame game sees the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, claiming that the Transportation Ministry was responsible for vetting passenger and crew lists from foreign carriers.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev, however, told Israeli outlet Kan that it was security agencies that should have ensured flight security, and that her ministry was not given any list of passengers, nor were they warned about a potential terrorist onboard.

Officials had earlier told The Associated Press that the UAE had shared a list of the September 30 flight's passengers and crew to Tel Aviv beforehand. They added that no red flags were raised after the list was shared, which adds to concerns around Israel's alleged security lapses around the incident.

The Omani co-pilot, Hammam Al Hammami, the Omani co-pilot who had stabbed the pilot and captain of the flight in a bid to crash it, was later labelled a terrorist by the UAE, which is leading the multi-nation probe into the incident.

Reports say that the UAE is likely to seek the death penalty for him after the investigation has concluded.