UAE President Warned Netanyahu of Major Hamas Attack Days Before October 7, Haaretz Investigation Claims

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu roughly a week and a half before Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that the group’s Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, was preparing a major operation against Israel, according to a sweeping investigation published Tuesday by Haaretz.

The investigation by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruti Yuval, based on dozens of Israeli and international sources as well as recordings, documents and internal correspondence, alleges that bin Zayed personally contacted Netanyahu in late September 2023 and warned him that Sinwar was preparing a significant move that could lead to widespread bloodshed, destabilize the region and endanger the Abraham Accords.

The report says the conversation lasted approximately 45 minutes and took place between the two leaders directly.

According to Haaretz, bin Zayed told Netanyahu that the intelligence came from a close Palestinian adviser who had moved from Gaza to Abu Dhabi years earlier but maintained extensive contacts inside the Strip. The adviser reportedly told the Emirati leader that Sinwar was preparing what he described as an event of potentially enormous proportions. Bin Zayed urged Netanyahu to take the threat seriously and ensure that Israel was prepared.

The Prime Minister’s Office has categorically rejected the report. In a statement carried by multiple Israeli outlets, Netanyahu’s office said: “An absolute lie! Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the period in question and did not receive any warning from him.”

Haaretz, however, stands by its reporting, saying the investigation is based on numerous sources and documentary material. According to the investigation, Netanyahu responded relatively calmly to the Emirati warning. The prime minister reportedly told bin Zayed that, in Israel’s assessment, Hamas’s main focus was on Judea and Samaria rather than Gaza and reassured him that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

The most consequential allegation in the report is that the warning was not subsequently passed on to the heads of Israel’s security establishment.

According to Haaretz, then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Mossad chief David Barnea and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi were not aware that Netanyahu had received the alleged warning from the UAE president. Both Bar and Halevi have reportedly said they had no knowledge of such a warning.

The investigation also says bin Zayed subsequently conveyed his concerns to then-CIA Director William Burns, telling him that he believed “something was about to explode.”

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, now chairman of the B’Yachad party, publicly backed the central claim on Tuesday. Bennett said the report that bin Zayed warned Netanyahu about Sinwar’s intentions was true, although he did not publicly explain the source of his information. He also claimed that former Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had warned Netanyahu days before October 7 that Hamas was preparing a major operation.

Bennett accused Netanyahu of bearing “personal and direct responsibility” for the failures that preceded the October 7 attack, arguing that the prime minister should have immediately raised Israel’s level of alert, convened senior military and intelligence officials and gone south to assess the situation.

He called the alleged failure to act on warnings “criminal negligence” and renewed his demand for a state commission of inquiry.

The new report adds another alleged warning to a growing body of accounts concerning intelligence and security assessments in the weeks and days preceding the Hamas assault.

The October 7 failure has already been the subject of extensive investigations into warnings from Israeli intelligence officials, military observers and foreign governments. The question of what Netanyahu personally knew, when he knew it and what action he took has remained one of the most politically contentious issues surrounding the disaster.

The Haaretz investigation also describes other secret contacts in the period immediately before the attack. According to the report, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani contacted Mossad chief David Barnea around the same period and conveyed that Hamas was prepared to discuss the release of civilian hostages through Qatari mediation. Barnea reportedly responded that Israel was not prepared at that stage to negotiate with Hamas.

The alleged Emirati warning is particularly notable because the UAE had established diplomatic relations with Israel only three years earlier, through the 2020 Abraham Accords. Bin Zayed was therefore not merely a foreign leader receiving intelligence about Hamas, but the leader of a state that had developed a close strategic relationship with Israel.

In a separate development, a Maariv investigation claimed on Tuesday that less than a week before Hamas launched its devastating October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing an extreme operation and recommended a targeted strike against the group’s Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, according to a security source familiar with the matter.

The warning was delivered during a meeting between Bar and Netanyahu on October 1, according to the source, who confirmed reports that have emerged in recent days. Bar reportedly told the prime minister that the Shin Bet was detecting signs that Hamas was “preparing something extreme” and used the phrase “earthquake” to describe the potential threat.

According to the source, Bar recommended that Israel carry out a targeted killing of Sinwar, along with additional operations against other senior Hamas figures. Netanyahu did not accept the recommendation.

“The reports that have recently emerged on this matter are accurate,” the security source said.

The Haaretz report, and the subsequent relevations in Maariv, immediately triggered fierce reactions across Israel’s political system.

Opposition figures, including Yair Golan and former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, cited the report as further evidence of what they described as a profound failure of leadership before October 7.

Eisenkot said the report added to what he described as the growing evidence that Netanyahu had received multiple warnings before the massacre but failed to act on them.

The October Council, an organization representing families affected by the October 7 disaster, said the focus should not be limited to the question of whether Netanyahu was awakened during the early hours of the attack. It argued that the more fundamental question was how many warnings were received before the attack, who received them, and what was done with the information.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel likewise renewed its call for a state commission of inquiry, arguing that only an independent investigation could establish responsibility across Israel’s political, military and intelligence leadership.