UAE warned Netanyahu of Oct 7 attacks by Hamas 10 days ahead, he didn't share intel

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was warned about the October 7 terror attack by Hamas at least 10 days in advance by none other than the current President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, but instead chose to remain silent and kept the rest of his administration in the dark.

The revelation was reported by the Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz on Tuesday, which has now sparked a massive political row in Israel.

Thousands of terrorists affiliated with Hamas had mounted a coordinated offensive into Southern Israel back in 2023, on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah in the first large-scale incursion into Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The attacks, which took Jerusalem by surprise, resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 civilians and soldiers, and sparked an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

This is hardly the first time that reports have surfaced of Israel having been given advanced warning of the October 7 offensive and failing to act. Earlier in 2023, the UK-based newspaper, The Guardian, had reported that Egypt had warned Israel days before the attack, citing Michael McCaul, then chairperson of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The latest Haaretz report, excerpted from a forthcoming book by its reporters, was dismissed by Netanyahu's office as an "absolute lie". That, however, has not stopped Israel's opposition from attacking the prime minister.

The Times of Israel newspaper quoted former PM Naftali Bennett as saying that, "Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch." Similarly, former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is running against Netanyahu in the upcoming October 27 election, wrote on X, "Netanyahu received dozens of warnings about October 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit for office."

UAE'S PRESIDENT CALLED UP NETANYAHU, WARNED ABOUT ATTACK

According to the Haaretz report, the warning to Netanyahu came after the UAE's President, Sheikh Muhamed bin Zayed, had been briefed by a Palestinian advisor with close ties to Gaza. The advisor had received information from a Fatah (a Palestinian political party) intermediary referred to by Haaretz as "coal eyes", who had met the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar multiple times.

Haartez reported Sinwar as warning coal eyes that he was preparing a "huge surprise" and used the Arabic word "zilzal" meaning earthquake to describe what was coming. Coal eyes subsequently passed on the information to one of bin Zayed's advisors, who later briefed the UAE President.

The UAE president was initially unsure as to the true nature of Sinwar's threats and kept the information to himself, fearing an unverified threat could trigger a bloody pre-emptive strike by Israel.

This changed after coal eyes passed on information about a second meeting that had with Sinwar to bin Zayed's aide, which convinced the latter that Hamas intended to go to war with Jerusalem.

Haaretz reported that bin Zayed then decided that Sinwar's threats about an upcoming "zilzal" had to be "conveyed to the Israelis, to the highest ranks there, as soon as possible". The warning was first passed to Israel's domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, on September 15.

The report said the information prompted Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to seek an immediate conversation with Netanyahu. Bar subsequently recommended either a powerful operation to neutralise the threat or, at minimum, stronger defensive measures around Gaza and the West Bank ahead of the Jewish holidays.

Two weeks later, after seeing that Israel had not acted on the warning as he expected, the UAE president decided to speak to Netanyahu personally.

In a 45-minute telephonic conversation in late September, only 10 days before October 7, Haaretz reported revealed that bin Zayed warned Netanyahu about Sinwar's planned offensive, saying that such an attack could cause "bloodshed but also destabilise the entire region and undermine the Abraham Accords".

Netanyahu, however, was reported as being relatively sanguine throughout the call, before assuring that Israel was prepared for any scenario. With hindsight, it is doubtful if Jerusalem had prepared for what would transpire on October 7.

NETANYAHU FAILED TO ACT, KEPT SECURITY CHIEFS IN THE DARK

Even before the UAE president's call, intelligence officials in Israel, noting an increased number of "terrorist attacks" and growing protests across Palestine, and alerted by the UAE, had been pressurising Netanyahu to act, including on October 1, when the Shien Bet chief met the PM, reported Haaretz.

These calls to action, however, were all postponed by Netanyahu, with one defence official telling Haretz that the PM kept asking for new plans, stating that, "He never said 'no'... That was always his way of postponing dealing with the problem".

Most damningly, according to the Haaretz report, Netanyahu did not disclose warnings he had received from UAE President bin Zayed or Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel to either his cabinet, or his security and intelligence chiefs, nor to the country's armed forces that could have helped in preparing for the surprise offensive.

Ironically, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday that the PM had recently denounced his security chiefs for purportedly choosing not to wake him in the hours before the attack when, he said, "all the signs were there" that Hamas was about to invade.

"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.

Netanyahu's office has rejected all accusations levelled by the Haaretz report. In a statement reported by The Times of Israel, the office called the Haaretz report, "A total lie! PM Netanyahu did not speak with the president of the UAE during the period in question and received no warning from him."

- Ends