A Haaretz investigation claims UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed personally warned Benjamin Netanyahu of a major Hamas operation days before the Oct. 7 attack -- and that Netanyahu dismissed it. His office calls the report an absolute lie.
A new Israeli media investigation alleges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major attack just days before the October 7, 2023, massacre -- and brushed it off. The report, published Tuesday by the Haaretz daily, says UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan called Netanyahu about 10 days before the assault and told him Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation against Israel.
Netanyahu's office called the report an absolute lie, insisting the prime minister never spoke with the UAE president during the period in question and received no warning from him. The UAE Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Haaretz said bin Zayed spoke with Netanyahu directly for roughly 45 minutes, citing three senior foreign sources familiar with the conversation. The UAE president reportedly warned that Sinwar's planned operation could lead to significant bloodshed, destabilize the region, and undermine the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab nations.
Netanyahu reportedly reacted with relative calm, assured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario, and suggested a possible attack was more likely to come from the West Bank. The report says he failed to mention the warning in subsequent security briefings, and both former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and former military chief Herzi Halevi told Haaretz they were never informed of the UAE president's call.
The investigation traced the warning to a Palestinian intermediary with ties to both Hamas and Israeli security officials. In September 2023, Sinwar reportedly described through that channel what he was preparing as a zilzal, or earthquake, and later called it the mother of all surprises and a terrifying operation. The message reached the Shin Bet on September 15, and Bar briefed Netanyahu on it, with senior defense officials holding a security assessment two days later.
According to the report, Bar warned at that assessment that Israel was on a collision course and recommended either a powerful offensive step or stronger defensive measures in Gaza and the West Bank ahead of the Jewish holidays. No decisions were made, and after UAE leadership concluded Israel had not adequately responded to the intelligence, bin Zayed decided to contact Netanyahu directly.
Haaretz also reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel contacted Netanyahu around the same period and warned of something unusual -- a terrifying operation -- being planned by Hamas. Netanyahu reportedly responded that Israel was in control of the situation in Gaza and was concentrating its attention and troop deployments on the West Bank.
Neither warning call was mentioned during an October 1 discussion on Gaza and Hamas, the investigation said. A senior Shin Bet official quoted in the report said knowledge of the warnings could have changed how security officials interpreted Sinwar's earlier statements and his withdrawal from negotiations.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he knew for a fact the report is true, telling Israeli radio that bin Zayed warned Netanyahu about Sinwar's plans and that the head of Egyptian intelligence also warned him days before the massacre. Bennett accused Netanyahu of leading Israel blindly into disaster and of treating Hamas as an asset for years.
Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot said the report adds to evidence that Netanyahu led Israel blindly into the October 7 failure and failed to update the heads of the defense establishment after receiving an explicit warning. Eisenkot said his party would push to establish a state commission of inquiry once the next government is formed.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in the October 7 attack, triggering wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond that are still reshaping the region as the attack's third anniversary approaches next month. Netanyahu has long rejected calls for an official government inquiry into the events surrounding October 7, and his office did not respond to a request for comment on the latest report.
The Haaretz investigation lands as Israel heads toward national elections, giving opposition parties fresh ammunition in their campaign to make October 7 accountability a central issue. Whether the alleged warning call can be independently corroborated -- and whether it moves the political ground in Jerusalem -- will likely play out in the weeks ahead.
A Haaretz investigation claims UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed personally warned Benjamin Netanyahu of a major Hamas operation days before the Oct. 7 attack -- and that Netanyahu dismissed it. His office calls the report an absolute lie.
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