A Haaretz investigation claims UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed warned Benjamin Netanyahu about a planned Hamas operation around 10 days before the October 7, 2023 attack.
WEB DESK: United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan reportedly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a planned major Hamas operation around 10 days before the October 7, 2023 attack, according to a new investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The report, based on a forthcoming book by Haaretz journalists and interviews with multiple sources, claims that bin Zayed personally spoke with Netanyahu and urged him to take the threat seriously.
Netanyahu’s office has denied the report, calling the account “an absolute lie” and saying the Israeli prime minister did not speak with the UAE president during the period in question.
What did the UAE president reportedly warn Netanyahu about?
According to the Haaretz investigation, bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu for around 45 minutes in September 2023.
The UAE president allegedly warned that Yahya Sinwar, who was then Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was preparing a major operation against Israel.
The report said bin Zayed was concerned that such an attack could cause significant bloodshed, destabilise the region and undermine the Abraham Accords, the agreements that normalised relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
The account said Netanyahu responded that Hamas was likely preparing an operation in the West Bank rather than Gaza and assured the UAE president that Israel was prepared for any scenario.
Report claims warning was not passed to top security officials
The Haaretz investigation further alleges that Netanyahu did not inform Israel’s senior security leadership about the warning from the UAE president.
According to the report, senior officials in the Mossad, Shin Bet and Israeli military were not briefed about the alleged direct communication.
The claim has significant implications because Israeli authorities have faced extensive scrutiny over intelligence and security failures preceding the October 7 attack. However, the allegation remains disputed because Netanyahu’s office has categorically denied that the conversation took place.
Egypt and Israeli intelligence also reportedly raised concerns
The report says the UAE warning was not the only indication of a potential Hamas operation.
According to the investigation, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also contacted Netanyahu around the same period and warned about an unusual and potentially dangerous Hamas operation.
The report additionally describes warnings from Shin Bet regarding messages attributed to Sinwar. The messages allegedly suggested that Hamas was preparing a major operation.
Haaretz reported that a message attributed to Sinwar reached Shin Bet on September 15, 2023, after which then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar briefed Netanyahu. Two days later, senior defence officials reportedly held a security assessment.
Netanyahu rejects the allegations
Netanyahu’s office strongly rejected the central claim, saying the prime minister had neither spoken with bin Zayed during the period in question nor received such a warning from him.
The UAE has not publicly confirmed the alleged conversation, although an Emirati source separately confirmed to The Times of Israel that Netanyahu had been warned about a planned Hamas attack, according to that publication.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has also said he believed the report was accurate, while opposition figures have used the allegations to renew calls for an independent investigation into the failures preceding October 7.
Allegations remain disputed
The report has renewed debate in Israel over whether warnings about a major Hamas attack were adequately assessed and communicated before October 7, 2023.
However, the alleged UAE-Netanyahu conversation has not been independently established as fact. Haaretz’s investigation and subsequent reporting by major news organisations have documented the allegation, while Netanyahu’s office has denied it.
The distinction is important as questions continue over who knew what before the October 7 attack and how Israeli security authorities responded to intelligence indicating that Hamas was preparing a major operation.
