The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has claimed intelligence provided by his country foiled an alleged plot by the Islamic State group to blow up a plane from Sydney using a device smuggled inside a meat mincer.

“The Israeli intelligence services thwarted the downing of an Australian plane, an unimaginable slaughter,” the Israeli leader told an American Jewish conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

“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,” Netanyahu said, later referring to the alleged plot as an Isis operation.



The Israeli army said one of its intelligence units, named 8200, provided the information in 2017 leading to the arrest of Isis militants who were working “toward the execution of the attack”.

The elite unit gathers and analyses intelligence using sophisticated information technology. The Israeli military said thwarting the alleged attack “saved the lives of dozens” but did not say which flight had been targeted.

Last year two brothers were arrested in Sydney – Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat – and charged with plotting to bring down an Etihad Airways passenger jet destined to fly to Abu Dhabi from Sydney.

They were accused of trying to smuggle an improvised device inside a meat mincer onto a plane due to leave Sydney on 15 July, but the attempt was aborted before they reached security.

Australian police said the plot had been orchestrated by “a senior member of the Islamic State” based overseas. It was prevented when foreign intelligence agencies intercepted communications from the Syrian jihadist, police said.

Days after the arrests, Lebanon’s interior minister said Beirut had monitored the brothers for more than a year and had worked with Australian authorities to disrupt the alleged attack.

Etihad earlier this week confirmed it was working with authorities in Australia on their investigation.

