Investigators on Thursday were trying to determine what motivated the co-pilot on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv to stab the pilot, a midair cockpit attack that nearly resulted in catastrophe.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel suggested in a television interview on Thursday that the co-pilot, who Israeli officials have identified as an Omani citizen, was ideologically motivated.

“We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” Mr. Netanyahu told Fox News, saying that investigators had learned this from the man’s “personal information.” He did not provide further details, and the man’s identity has not been made public.

In a video released by Mr. Netanyahu’s office on Thursday, Yaniv Hayoun, an Israeli passenger said to be the first to grab the co-pilot, recounted him saying “Kill me! Kill me!” in English. Mr. Hayoun said he took that to mean that “he had failed in his mission and preferred to die.”

Mr. Hayoun, who put the attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit, appears to be the only passenger on the FlyDubai flight to have reported that.

The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that it would take the lead in investigating whether the attack was linked to terrorism. Both the wounded pilot and co-pilot have been transferred from Saudi Arabia, where the plane made an emergency landing, to the Emirates.

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