Netanyahu says too early to tell who was behind plane incident as flydubai halts all flights to Israel

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was still too early to determine who was ultimately responsible for an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, according to the Guardian.

Netanyahu's comments came even as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, described the incident as a “terror attack” without formally assigning blame to any state or organisation.

Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday night, Danon said Israel had “no doubt that it was a terror attack from a radical individual”, adding: “We still cannot link it to a terror state or terror organisation, but for sure we know there was an intention to bring that plane down.”

Following the incident, flydubai halted all of its flights to Israel. Netanyahu's more cautious public assessment appeared to leave open the question of possible state or organisational involvement, including any link to Iran, which he said there was no evidence for at this stage.

No further details on the nature of the incident, the flight's status, or any casualties have been confirmed in the reporting so far.