Israeli PM Netanyahu under fire over Haaretz report UAE warned of October 7 attack

Israeli opposition leaders on Tuesday called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit to serve after a report that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had warned him before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Haaretz newspaper, in a report excerpted from a forthcoming book by its reporters, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Netanyahu a week-and-a-half before the attack and told him that Hamas was planning a major operation.

Netanyahu’s office called the report by the left-leaning newspaper “an absolute lie” and denied he spoke to the Emirati leader at that time.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander who has emerged as Netanyahu’s top rival in upcoming October 27 elections, accused the long-serving prime minister of evading responsibility for security lapses and resorting to “pathetic” excuses, such as saying he was not woken up soon enough on the morning of the attack.

“Netanyahu received dozens of warnings for October 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit,” Eisenkot wrote on X.

Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister also running in elections, said Netanyahu “bears personal and direct responsibility” for the deaths on October 7.

“Netanyahu cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute,” Bennett said.

Haaretz said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had warned a former Palestinian official that Hamas was preparing “a terrifying operation” which he described as an “earthquake”.

The former Palestinian official relayed the message to an Emirati adviser, who passed it on to the Emirati leader who then called Netanyahu, according to the newspaper.

The UAE normalised ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords under US President Donald Trump’s first administration.

The newspaper, quoting mostly anonymous sources, said that Netanyahu replied calmly to the warning.

Netanyahu for years had sought to preserve the status quo with Hamas, which would receive funding via Qatar with an understanding Hamas was more interested in self-preservation than a devastating war with Israel.

Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7. The attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Hamas fighters also took to Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.

The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed 73,658 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.