Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is denying claims that he was warned by neighboring world leaders about the Oct. 7 massacre days before the attack occurred, as blame for the tragedy becomes a hot potato ahead of next month’s elections.
A report published by Haaretz — citing the newly released book “Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment” by Israeli journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval — claims that then-leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar instructed Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to warn Netanyahu of an impending attack. Bin Zayed allegedly passed this message to the Israeli premier in late September 2023, reportedly conveying a sense of seriousness about the threat.
The prime minister’s office called the report “an absolute lie.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the relevant period and did not receive any warning from him,” the premier’s office said in a statement to Haaretz following the report.
The prime minister’s office later published a statement to social media stating: “The press reports are false. No warning was given to the Prime Minister from the United Arab Emirates before October 7th. If there was any relevant information, it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries.”
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs neither confirmed nor denied the report, insisting on Tuesday that it “does not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders.”
The ministry did, however, affirm that Emirati leaders and Israeli leaders “have maintained open and direct lines of communication since the inception of the relationship more than five years ago.”
“When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities,” the ministry said in its statement.
Suggestions have percolated since 2023 that Israel fumbled intelligence that indicated the Oct. 7 massacres were forthcoming, but this is the first time the Emiratis have been tied to the situation.
“The long and short of it is that there have been multiple credible reports of warnings that were issued and the Israelis appeared to ignore them,” Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. “In some cases, we’ve heard about Egyptians passing on intelligence to Israeli intelligence officials. We have heard that there were alerts that were provided to top Israeli commanders from observers along the border with Gaza and that those were ignored. This is the first time that we’ve heard that the Emiratis passed on intelligence directly to the Prime Minister’s office.”
Schanzer questioned the timing of this report, suggesting that there were political aims tied to the disclosures from the UAE.
“Let’s just say that the UAE has been sitting on this information for two and a half years, and now they’re releasing it just before the Israeli election,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Everything that is coming out right now about Netanyahu or his challengers must be seen in that light. Is the UAE getting dragged into Israeli politics or has the UAE inserted itself into Israeli politics? Either way, I think we have to look at it in that light.”
Blame for the Oct. 7 massacres has become one of the most prominent political weapons for politicians in the run-up to the late October elections. Accusations of systematic failures, foreknowledge, and botched responses have been flung in all directions, but no official government inquiry has been launched into the matter — frustrating an Israeli public that demands answers.
“You need a state commission of inquiry and until you have one […] which has the legitimacy of the independent powers to investigate, you’re not gonna know what Netanyahu knew and when he knew it, what he did, what he didn’t do,” Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Washington Examiner. “Two months before an Israeli election, this is a big deal.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that he was not woken up by his security officials in the lead-up to the Oct. 7 attacks, despite intelligence indicating that the attack was forthcoming. He maintains that if he had been alerted to the situation, he would have prevented the massacre.
The premier and his family have for weeks insinuated that Yair Golan — the leader of the left-wing Democrats in the Knesset who previously served as deputy IDF chief of staff — intentionally withheld information from the prime minister.
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Golan has been credited with driving to the Nova music festival venue and saving multiple lives as the terrorist attack was underway. He has rebuked any accusation that he withheld information from anyone during the invasion and threatened to sue Netanyahu’s wife for her claims.
“When you’re a military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7 — already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister,” Sara Netanyahu said in an interview earlier this month.
An August poll conducted by Channel 13 found that 40% of Israelis believe that treasonous behavior within the government or military contributed to the Oct. 7 attacks. That portion grows to 63% among supporters of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.