Wounded FlyDubai captain recounts fight to save passengers, and other Mideast developments

The Indian airline captain who helped avert an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen who was running in Israel’s upcoming election is withdrawing his candidacy following comments over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel .

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here .

The FlyDubai captain told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he knew he had to regain control to save everyone on board, after he was stabbed by his co-pilot and the aircraft plunged into a steep descent.

“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Capt. Smit Machchhar said in the video call that was broadcast live from a hospital in Abu Dhabi. “I was fighting for my life. At one point I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”

Machchhar was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.

The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with 182 people on board, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia and was undergoing interrogation there. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

— More coverage on the attempt to crash the plane is available here .

Sami Abou Shehadeh, the chairman of the left-wing Balad party, said he would withdraw from Israel’s upcoming election after the country’s Supreme Court president said a majority of justices were prepared to uphold his disqualification.

Abou Shehadeh’s candidacy was challenged over an editorial he wrote in the newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The article did not condemn Hamas and argued that, given conditions in Gaza, it was surprising violence hadn’t erupted earlier.

In a subsequent article, Abou Shehadeh, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, called Hamas’ attack both unacceptable and a crime. He said he hadn’t known the scale of the violence when he wrote the first.

The court weighed whether his remarks violated an Israeli law barring candidates who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel. His lawyers said that barring him would reinterpret the law and create a new threshold.

For Abou Shehadeh, who was running on the Arab parties’ Joint List, withdrawing avoids a court precedent that could be used to disqualify Palestinian candidates in future Israeli elections, his party said.

About 20% of Israel's citizens are of Palestinian descent.

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.