Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was allegedly warned about the October 7 Hamas terror attack at least 10 days before it happened by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, but reportedly chose not to act on the information or inform senior members of his administration.
The revelation, reported by Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz on Tuesday, has triggered a major political controversy in Israel.
In 2023, thousands of Hamas-affiliated terrorists launched a coordinated assault on southern Israel on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. It was the first large-scale incursion into Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The attack caught Israel off guard, killed at least 1,200 civilians and soldiers, and led to Israel launching a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
This is not the first report alleging that Israel received advance intelligence about the October 7 assault but failed to respond. Earlier in 2023, UK-based newspaper The Guardian reported that Egypt had warned Israel about a possible attack days beforehand, citing Michael McCaul, then chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The latest Haaretz report, which is based on an excerpt from an upcoming book written by the newspaper's reporters, has been rejected by Netanyahu's office as an “absolute lie”. However, the report has already prompted criticism from political opponents of the Israeli prime minister.
The Times of Israel quoted former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as saying, “Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.” Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is contesting Netanyahu in the October 27 election, also wrote on X, “Netanyahu received dozens of warnings about October 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit for office.”
UAE PRESIDENT CALLED NETANYAHU, WARNED ABOUT ATTACK
According to the Haaretz report, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed received the initial warning after being briefed by a Palestinian adviser with close connections to Gaza. The adviser had obtained the information from a Fatah intermediary whom Haaretz referred to as “coal eyes”. The intermediary had reportedly met late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar several times.
The report said Sinwar told “coal eyes” that he was preparing a “huge surprise” and used the Arabic term “zilzal”, meaning earthquake, to describe what was about to happen. The intermediary then passed the information to one of bin Zayed's advisers, who subsequently briefed the UAE president.
Initially, bin Zayed was uncertain about the credibility and nature of Sinwar's threats. He reportedly chose to keep the information private because he feared that an unverified warning could prompt Israel to launch a bloody pre-emptive strike.
That changed after “coal eyes” relayed details of a second meeting with Sinwar to bin Zayed's aide. The additional information reportedly convinced the aide that Hamas was preparing for war with Israel.
Haaretz reported that bin Zayed subsequently concluded that Sinwar's warning about an impending “zilzal” needed to be “conveyed to the Israelis, to the highest ranks there, as soon as possible”. The warning was first communicated to Israel's domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, on September 15.
The information reportedly prompted Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to seek an urgent meeting with Netanyahu. Bar subsequently recommended either launching a major operation to eliminate the threat or, at the very least, strengthening defensive measures around Gaza and the West Bank ahead of the Jewish holidays.
Around two weeks later, after concluding that Israel had not responded to the warning as expected, the UAE president decided to contact Netanyahu directly.
In a 45-minute phone conversation in late September, roughly 10 days before October 7, bin Zayed reportedly warned Netanyahu about Sinwar's planned offensive. He said such an attack could result in “bloodshed but also destabilise the entire region and undermine the Abraham Accords”.
According to the report, Netanyahu remained relatively calm during the conversation and assured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any eventuality. In retrospect, however, it remains questionable whether Jerusalem was prepared for the scale and nature of the assault that unfolded on October 7.
NETANYAHU FAILED TO ACT, KEPT SECURITY CHIEFS IN THE DARK
Even before the UAE president's direct call, Israeli intelligence officials had reportedly been urging Netanyahu to respond to signs of increased “terrorist attacks” and growing unrest across Palestine. According to Haaretz, the UAE warning added to those concerns. Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar also met Netanyahu on October 1 and pressed for action.
However, Netanyahu reportedly continued postponing decisions. One defence official told Haaretz that the prime minister repeatedly asked for new plans, saying, “He never said 'no'... That was always his way of postponing dealing with the problem”.
The most serious allegation in the Haaretz report is that Netanyahu did not share the warnings from UAE President bin Zayed or Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel with his cabinet, security and intelligence chiefs, or the armed forces. According to the report, this information could potentially have helped Israel prepare for the surprise attack.
The allegations are particularly notable because The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu had recently criticised his security chiefs for allegedly failing to wake him in the hours before the attack, despite what he described as signs that Hamas was preparing to invade.
“If we had known about the warnings, there's a chance it would have given much greater weight to the initial message that reached us from Sinwar,” a senior Shin Bet official told Haaretz.
Netanyahu's office has rejected the allegations in the Haaretz report. In a statement cited by The Times of Israel, his office described the report as “A total lie! PM Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the UAE during the period in question and received no warning from him.”
