Benjamin Netanyahu said he will sue Haaretz for libel after it reported he was warned weeks before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack and failed to alert Israeli security officials.
Haaretz said Netanyahu held a 45-minute late-September 2023 call with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and was told Hamas planned a major operation to destabilize the region.
Netanyahu’s office called the report a politically timed fabrication and said security officials found no record of any conversation with the Emirati leader between September 2023 and the attack.
The UAE foreign ministry did not address the alleged call directly, but said it does not comment on media speculation and that any relevant intelligence would have moved through open channels between the two governments.
The report triggered immediate political fallout in Israel, with opposition politicians saying Netanyahu was unfit for office if he had received such a warning.
Will Netanyahu's libel lawsuit against Haaretz force the public disclosure of classified Israel-UAE intelligence communications regarding the Hamas attack?
If official logs show no record, what hidden evidence proves the UAE President warned Netanyahu before the tragic October 7 attack?
How might this alleged ignored warning reshape the ongoing demands for an independent investigation into Israel's intelligence failures?