Captain Smit Machchhar told Benjamin Netanyahu by phone the Omani co-pilot rose as if to pray before striking him from behind with an axe. Netanyahu invited Machchhar and Narendra Modi to light Israel's Independence Day torch. Outlets quoted investigators saying the co-pilot wanted to crash the jet and was unafraid of death, examined how he cleared security despite a UAE crew list shared with Israel, and noted Al Qaeda praise for the attempt and Iran's denial of links.

Protests demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation spread to Mumbai, where Uddhav and Raj Thackeray led a Garjana Morcha, and Delhi, where police detained Saurabh Bharadwaj, Neha Bora and others. Three women journalists accused Delhi police of groping at Jantar Mantar, prompting a Crime Branch probe. Justice Ujjal Bhuyan called mass voter deletions a strike at the Constitution as Kerala ordered a probe into Kumar's PWD tenure.