Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly warned by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel just 10 days before the October 7 attacks, according to a new report that has renewed scrutiny over Israel’s intelligence and security failures.
The allegation was first reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which said bin Zayed personally raised the threat during a 45-minute conversation with Netanyahu in late September 2023.
According to the report, the Emirati president told Netanyahu that Yahya Sinwar, then Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was preparing a major operation against Israel.
Bin Zayed reportedly warned that such an attack could result in significant bloodshed, destabilise the wider region and threaten the Abraham Accords, under which the UAE normalised relations with Israel in 2020.
Netanyahu is alleged to have responded calmly, saying he believed any Hamas operation was more likely to be directed towards the occupied West Bank and assuring the UAE leader that Israel was prepared for any scenario.
The reported warning came just over a week before Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched their unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 people were taken captive during the assault. Israel subsequently launched its devastating military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and destroyed much of the besieged territory.
Questions have also emerged over whether Netanyahu shared the alleged Emirati warning with Israel’s senior security establishment.
According to the Haaretz investigation, former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and former Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said they had not been informed about the warning before October 7.
Netanyahu’s office has strongly denied the claims, describing the report as an “absolute lie” and saying the prime minister neither spoke with bin Zayed during the period in question nor received such a warning from him.
The allegations have nevertheless intensified political pressure on Netanyahu over the failures that preceded October 7.
Opposition figures have accused the Israeli prime minister of ignoring warnings and failing to prevent the attack. Former Israeli military chief and opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot said Netanyahu was “unfit” to remain in office, while former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused him of bearing personal responsibility for the failures that allowed the attack to take place.
Netanyahu has faced sustained criticism over his government’s handling of intelligence before October 7 and has resisted demands for an independent state commission of inquiry into the political and security failures surrounding the attack.
The latest allegations are likely to add further pressure for a comprehensive investigation into what Israeli political and security leaders knew in the days and months before October 7, and whether warnings that could have indicated an imminent Hamas operation were overlooked or inadequately acted upon.
