Haaretz Book and Atlantic Reporting Say Netanyahu Got UAE, Egypt Warnings Before Oct. 7 and Didn't Tell His Own Security Chiefs

Three years after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, Benjamin Netanyahu is campaigning on a story of Israeli resilience. New reporting complicates it with a different question: what did he know, and when.

According to a Haaretz investigation drawn from a book by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, Mohamed bin Zayed, President of the United Arab Emirates, told Netanyahu in September 2023 that Hamas leadership was planning a major military operation. The Atlantic has independently confirmed that a call between the two leaders took place that month.

"Bin Zayed urged Netanyahu to take the situation seriously. To his surprise, however, the prime minister reacted with relative calm," the Haaretz report states, adding that Netanyahu told bin Zayed he believed Hamas intended to operate in the West Bank and assured him Israel was prepared for any scenario.

The Haaretz account, which relies on the Eldar-Yuval book and has not been independently corroborated by other outlets, says Netanyahu did not pass bin Zayed's warning to Israeli security chiefs. Israel's defense establishment reportedly knew of a growing Hamas threat at the time but assessed it as smaller in scale than what followed.

Separately, Yahya Sinwar, then Hamas's leader in Gaza, reportedly told a Fatah official before the attack that absent progress on negotiations over the Gaza blockade and prisoner releases, he was "preparing a huge surprise" and invoked a "zilzal," an earthquake, a term people familiar with Sinwar interpreted as a warning of war. Haaretz reports this warning reached Netanyahu.

The Atlantic has also reported that an Egyptian security official, identified in other reporting as Abbas Kamel, warned Israel it risked a Hamas attack unless it offered economic concessions to Gaza. The Wall Street Journal has confirmed Kamel repeated that warning in the days before Oct. 7. A former Israeli official told The Atlantic there was "no world" in which Kamel would have traveled to Israel without Netanyahu's knowledge.

Netanyahu's office has flatly denied the Haaretz account, calling it an "absolute lie" and stating he "didn't speak to the president of the UAE during the period in question and received no warning from him." Multiple outlets report that during a trip to Abu Dhabi last month, initially undisclosed before Israel and the UAE confirmed it occurred, Netanyahu asked bin Zayed to deny the 2023 call. The Emiratis have not commented.

Haaretz additionally reports that in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Hamas offered through a Palestinian intermediary to release all hostages under 18 or over 50 "without anything in return," contingent only on a guarantee that negotiations would begin on other issues. The unofficial Israeli response, according to that intermediary, was that Netanyahu "only wants war and the elimination of Hamas" and would free hostages "by force." This claim rests on a single anonymous source and remains unconfirmed by Israeli officials.

None of the warning claims have been verified through declassified intelligence or testimony before an Israeli commission of inquiry, which Netanyahu has resisted establishing. He faces voters later this month seeking a 20th year in office.