Over 1,200 aviation crew members from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, including Iran, might have entered the country, according to an N12 News report on Tuesday.
The report cited the Knesset’s Intelligence Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, saying the countries also include Syria, Lebanon, and Oman.
The N12 report follows the attempted hijacking of flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday by its Omani co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, who attacked Capt. Smit Machchhar with a cockpit crash axe in an attempt to gain full control of the aircraft.
N12 cited sources present at the committee meeting on the subject, who said that the revelation came as a surprise to the Transportation Ministry representative.
Those involved in the meeting were unaware of how such crew members successfully cleared Israeli border control, or if they just continued onward without entering the country, according to N12.
The report further cited an internal security document stating that the Transportation Ministry is the sole entity responsible for screening foreign aviation crew members.
The document, titled “Security Directive 2026: Security Measures for Foreign Passenger Flights Entering Israel’s Aviation Supervision Area,” was sent to foreign airline security managers on Thursday following the attempted flydubai hijacking.
According to the document, foreign airlines are responsible for referring to the list of banned nationalities when selecting the crews for their Israel flights, though N12 noted that, in practice, the Transportation Ministry did not enforce such checks.
The ministry further abandoned its practice of screening pilots belonging to foreign companies and also did not require the cross-checking of crew manifests against the list of banned nationalities, N12 reported, nor did it conduct required inspections on the matter.
Amichai Stein and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.