Netanyahu denies UAE warning ahead of October 7 Hamas attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a report claiming that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan warned him of a planned Hamas attack shortly before October 7, 2023, Tass reports.

Netanyahu described the Haaretz report as defamatory and said he had instructed his lawyers to sue the newspaper and its authors.

He said there had been no conversation between him and the UAE president from the beginning of September until October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu added that his office, the National Security Council and the military secretariat had checked call logs and found no record of such contact.

Haaretz, citing a book by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, had reported that about 10 days before the attack, the UAE president called Netanyahu and warned him about plans by then-Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar to launch a major attack on Israel.

Netanyahu called the report “malicious defamation” and again blamed the failure to prevent the attack on senior security officials, including former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

By Aghakazim Guliyev