Defense Minister Israel Katz says the incident aboard the flydubai plane earlier today "was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt."

The copilot of the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight allegedly stabbed the pilot in a suspected attempt to crash the aircraft, which later landed in Saudi Arabia.

"The grave incident on the flydubai plane was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist and, with their own hands, restored control of the plane to another flight crew who was present there," Katz says in a statement.

"According to the initial information in our possession, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the plane with all its passengers," he says.