UAE Warned Netanyahu of Hamas Attack

PHOTO CAPTION: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters in Jerusalem, Sept. 8, 2026. Netanyahu’s office is denying a new report that he received a UAE warning about a planned major Hamas attack roughly 10 days before Oct. 7, 2023. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned that Hamas was preparing a major attack roughly 10 days before the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, according to a new report that Netanyahu’s office is calling false.

The warning allegedly came directly from United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a phone conversation in late September 2023.

According to Haaretz, bin Zayed told Netanyahu that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation against Israel that could cause significant bloodshed, destabilize the region and threaten the Abraham Accords.

Netanyahu reportedly reacted calmly.

The Israeli prime minister told bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario and indicated that if Hamas acted, he believed the operation was more likely to be directed toward the West Bank, according to the report.

Ten days later, Hamas-led militants launched the Oct. 7 attack from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people in Israel and taking 251 hostages.

Netanyahu’s office has categorically rejected the account.

“The press reports are false,” the Prime Minister’s Office said Tuesday, adding that Netanyahu received no such warning from the UAE before Oct. 7.

His office also denied that Netanyahu spoke with bin Zayed during the period described in the report.

But the story gained another layer Tuesday when The Times of Israel reported that an Emirati source familiar with the alleged conversation independently confirmed that bin Zayed had called Netanyahu and warned him Hamas was planning a major attack.

The UAE government itself has stopped short of publicly confirming the allegation.

Its Foreign Ministry said the two countries have maintained direct communication since establishing relations and that relevant intelligence is shared through appropriate channels when necessary.

The original Haaretz report said the alleged conversation lasted roughly 45 minutes and was described by multiple foreign officials familiar with its contents.

It also reported that Netanyahu did not subsequently relay the warning to senior Israeli security officials.

Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi both told Haaretz they had not been informed about such a warning from the UAE, according to reports summarizing the investigation.

That detail is already fueling a larger argument inside Israel over whether additional intelligence could have changed the security establishment’s assessment before Oct. 7.

Senior Israeli officials who participated in security discussions before the attack told Channel 12 that knowing about the reported UAE warning could have caused them to examine the threat differently.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also said Tuesday that the report was true, although he did not publicly explain how he knew the details of the alleged warning.

Bennett accused Netanyahu of ignoring multiple warnings before the Hamas assault. Netanyahu’s political opponents have similarly demanded an investigation into what information reached the prime minister before Oct. 7.

The new allegations arrive at an especially sensitive moment.

Israel is scheduled to hold national elections in October, and the security failures surrounding Oct. 7 remain a central political issue. Netanyahu has faced years of criticism over the attack while rejecting calls for a formal state commission of inquiry into the failures leading up to it.

The distinction in the new reporting is important.

There is no evidence presented that Netanyahu was given the exact date, targets or operational details of the Oct. 7 attack.

The allegation is that he was warned approximately 10 days beforehand that Sinwar and Hamas were preparing a major offensive against Israel — and that the warning was not passed to senior Israeli security officials.

Netanyahu’s office says that warning never happened.

An Emirati source familiar with the conversation says it did.

That dispute is now likely to become another major part of the fight over what Israeli leaders knew before one of the country’s worst security failures.

(Source: OAF Nation)