Netanyahu under fire over reports he ignored UAE warning on Hamas attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned about 10 days before Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that the militant group was preparing a major operation against Israel, but he didn’t pass the information on to the country’s security leadership, according to a report published on Tuesday.

An Emirati source familiar with the conversation confirmed the report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz and The Times of Israel, saying the warning was delivered during a phone call between Netanyahu and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Haaretz report was based on a new book, Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment, by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval. The book draws on interviews with dozens of sources, including senior officials in Israel and abroad.

According to the report, three senior foreign officials were briefed on the contents of the 45-minute conversation between Netanyahu and bin Zayed in late September. Haaretz also cited a Palestinian adviser to the Emirati president who had direct knowledge of the call.

The report said bin Zayed warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation against Israel that could lead to bloodshed, destabilise the region and potentially undermine the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states.

Bin Zayed was reportedly surprised by Netanyahu’s response. According to Haaretz, the Israeli prime minister remained calm, telling the Emirati leader that Israel was on top of the situation in Gaza, that any Hamas action was more likely to take place in the West Bank, and that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

Hamas-led militants launched a multi-pronged assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza. The attack triggered the war in Gaza and a wider regional conflict.

The UAE government declined to confirm or deny the report, saying only that the two countries have maintained “open lines of communication” through which “all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated”.

Warning originated with Sinwar

According to Haaretz, bin Zayed’s information about the threat originated with Sinwar himself. In mid-2023, Sinwar was reportedly frustrated by the lack of progress in negotiations over the release of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Contacts over a possible deal had begun earlier that year. A senior Fatah intermediary, referred to as “Coal Eyes”, exchanged messages with Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas political bureau member who speaks fluent Hebrew. The arrangement was intended to avoid the appearance of direct contact between Israel and Hamas, according to Haaretz.

In practice, however, the discussions over easing restrictions on Gaza and improving living conditions in the territory were “virtually direct”. Hamad and Coal Eyes met at the home of a former Palestinian Authority official in Gaza, while a Shin Bet official participated by telephone.

A deal appeared close by the summer of 2023, according to Haaretz. Sinwar had reportedly backed away from a demand for the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages and was prepared to accept 50. The Shin Bet was reportedly prepared to accept the release of 30 prisoners, including 20 serving life sentences, a proposal Netanyahu had approved.

But the Israeli prime minister repeatedly delayed convening the ministerial committee responsible for hostages and missing persons, which needed to approve the prisoner releases, an Israeli security source told Haaretz.

The newspaper reported that Netanyahu’s reluctance may have been driven by concerns about reaching an agreement with Hamas and facing opposition from hardline members of his coalition. Shin Bet officials involved in the negotiations also said the prime minister had repeatedly expressed concerns about leaks to the media.

As negotiations stalled, Sinwar cut off contact with intermediaries in early September 2023. A senior Shin Bet official described him as having “vanished from our radar, evaporated”. But Sinwar subsequently held two private meetings with Coal Eyes, warning the Fatah intermediary of the consequences if Israel failed to move forward with a deal.

“Tell the Israelis if they don’t advance, I’m preparing a huge surprise for them,” Sinwar reportedly said. “Tell them to expect a zilzal, an earthquake.”

Coal Eyes was reportedly “agitated” after the meeting, according to bin Zayed’s Palestinian adviser.

“It was clear to him that the operation Sinwar was talking about could affect the entire Middle East, but he was afraid to report the information directly to the Shin Bet,” the adviser said, according to the book. “On the other hand, he was even more terrified that if he didn’t update the Shin Bet, the Israelis might accuse him of collaborating with Sinwar.”

He ultimately decided to pass the information to bin Zayed. The Emirati president asked what Sinwar meant by “zilzal”.

“If he says zilzal, he means war,” the adviser reportedly replied, saying this was his and Coal Eyes’ interpretation.

“If we are not sure, we will not convey any warning to the Israelis for now. We will investigate the matter thoroughly until we are certain,” bin Zayed reportedly said.

At a second meeting in mid-September, Sinwar told Coal Eyes that he was preparing “a formidable operation”.

After being told that the Israelis had not been informed of his previous warning, Sinwar reportedly demanded that another message be passed on saying he was preparing “the mother of all surprises. A terrifying operation. Something extraordinary”, again using the word zilzal.

Haaretz said the warning was eventually passed directly to the Shin Bet in mid-September. Israeli security officials discussed it in the following days, but did not interpret it as a warning of an imminent attack from Gaza, and no concrete decisions were taken.

“Why did Sinwar send us a warning?” a senior intelligence official later asked, according to the report.

“Either it was because he grew tired of Israel’s foot-dragging, wanting to pressure us into an arrangement and not so eager to start a war. Or, as we prefer to think, it was part of his “Great Deception” plan, and he wanted to test the IDF’s readiness,” the official said.

Netanyahu allegedly dismissed warning

Concerned by the lack of Israeli reaction, bin Zayed subsequently spoke directly to Netanyahu. According to Haaretz, the Emirati leader told the Israeli PM that, in his assessment, Sinwar was preparing a major event and urged Israel to be ready.

“The emir explained that, in his assessment, Sinwar was preparing for a major event,” bin Zayed’s adviser, who was present during the conversation, told Haaretz. “He told Netanyahu that Israel should be ready. Concurrently, he recommended trying to find an economic solution for the Strip and calming the West Bank to prevent escalation.”

Bin Zayed also reportedly shared his warning with CIA Director William J. Burns, telling him he had tried to convince Netanyahu that “something there is about to explode”.

According to the report, bin Zayed hoped that Netanyahu’s apparently calm response did not mean the Israeli prime minister would disregard the warning.

The conversation echoed another reported exchange between Netanyahu and Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, who also spoke to the Israeli prime minister around 10 days before the attack and warned that people in Gaza were likely to carry out “something unusual, a terrible operation”. Netanyahu has denied that conversation took place.

Haaretz also reported that on 1 October, then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar again proposed proactive measures against Hamas, including targeting senior officials. Netanyahu did not make a decision, instead asking the agency to present its proposals for consideration. According to the report, he did not mention his conversation with bin Zayed.

“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.

“Perhaps it would have also clarified what was behind his sudden withdrawal from the de-escalation talks in early September. It’s possible we would have put two and two together and reached a completely different conclusion from the one we arrived at, one that might have altered our entire intelligence picture.”

Senior Israeli officials involved in security discussions before the attack similarly told Channel 12 that they might have reached different conclusions had Netanyahu passed on the reported warning.

“If we had known about Netanyahu’s conversations with the Emiratis, and apparently also with the Egyptians, there is a considerable likelihood that we would have reached different conclusions,” one senior official said, describing the warning as a “critical” piece of information.

“Had we known, we would at the very least have examined the matter more deeply,” another official said.

Channel 12 also reported that, days after the attack, former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan told a close associate in frustration: “We passed warnings on to the Israelis. They did nothing with them.”

Netanyahu calls report a “total lie”

Netanyahu’s office rejected the Haaretz report, calling it “a total lie”. “Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the period in question and received no warning from him,” the statement said.

It later reiterated that “no warning was given to the Prime Minister from the United Arab Emirates before October 7”, adding that any relevant information had been transmitted through intelligence channels between the two countries.

Ronen Bar and then-IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi told Haaretz that they had not been informed of any warning from bin Zayed. The UAE Foreign Ministry said it does not comment on “media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders”.

Bennett backs report

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said on X that he knew the Haaretz report was accurate. “The report published this morning that Netanyahu was warned 10 days before the October 7 massacre about Sinwar’s intentions is true,” Bennett said.

“Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.” Bennett did not explain how he knew the report was accurate.

He accused Netanyahu of “criminal negligence” and said this was why the prime minister was trying to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry. “He did not go down to the field. He did not alert the heads of the security establishment. He did not prepare Israel for an attack. And he did not convene the cabinet,” Bennett said.

“What did he do in those days? He kept Hamas well supplied to stop the demonstrations it was allowing along the border fence, transferred additional funds to buy a little quiet, promised additional work permits for Palestinian workers in response to Hamas threats, and, as usual, dismissed all the warnings from the heads of the security establishment.”

Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff and Netanyahu’s main challenger in the election, also criticised the prime minister. “More and more signs point to the same conclusion: Netanyahu led Israel blindly into the October 7 disaster,” Eisenkot wrote on X.

“Who failed to wake whom?” he asked, referring to Netanyahu’s claims about the morning of the attack.

Sources: Times of Israel, Haaretz

Caption: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the graduation ceremony of the Israel Defense Forces officers’ course at a military base near Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel, 25 June 2026. EPA/ABIR SULTAN