Information provided by Israeli intelligence helped prevent a terror attack aboard an "Australian airliner," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a meeting with US Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.
"The Israeli intelligence services thwarted the downing of an Australian plane, an unimaginable slaughter," Netanyahu said during the speech, adding that "this would have caused a major disruption in global air transport, and this is only one of dozens of terrorist attacks we have foiled around the world."
Prior to Netanyahu's speech, the Israeli Defense Forces revealed that Unit 8200 of the country's military intelligence had thwarted an "air attack abroad" by Daesh terrorists.
"The thwarting of the attack led to the saving of the lives of dozens of innocent people and demonstrated that Unit 8200 is a player in the intelligence war against Islamic State [Daesh]," the army said.
Speaking further, the army said that the information provided by Unit 8200, which is an elite unit, gathering intelligence using sophisticated information technology, led to the arrest of two Daesh militants involved in the attack attempt.
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Israeli media linked the statements to the attempted bombing of an Etihad Airways flight in July that was due to leave from Sydney for Abu Dhabi.
According to the Times of Israel, the information provided by Israeli intelligence to their Australian colleagues nine days after the attack attempt, led to the arrest of two Lebanese-Australian brothers, Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat, who tried to smuggle a homemade bomb, disguised as a meat grinder, onto the passenger jet.
