Netanyahu Denies Receiving Hamas Warning from UAE President

A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, issued a direct warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late September 2023, just days before the October 7th Hamas attacks. According to the report, bin Zayed alerted Netanyahu to Yahya Sinwar's intentions to attack Israel, urging the Prime Minister to take the threat seriously. However, the report states that Netanyahu reacted with relative calm and did not update senior security officials about the warning.

The Prime Minister's Office has vehemently denied the report, issuing a statement to Haaretz calling it "an absolute lie." They asserted that Netanyahu did not speak with the UAE President during the specified period and received no such warning.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett publicly supported the Haaretz report, stating that Netanyahu was indeed warned about Sinwar's intentions ten days before the October 7th massacre. Bennett accused Netanyahu of bearing direct personal responsibility for the failures that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis under his leadership, calling his alleged disregard for warnings "criminal negligence." Bennett further claimed that Netanyahu is actively working to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would reveal the truth.

Bennett elaborated on Netanyahu's alleged inaction, stating that the Prime Minister did not visit affected areas, did not alert security chiefs, and did not prepare Israel for the attack or convene the security cabinet. Instead, Bennett claimed, Netanyahu focused on appeasing Hamas by allowing funds and workers into Gaza to quell protests and maintain temporary quiet, while ignoring security warnings. Bennett concluded that Netanyahu was trapped by his own assumptions, failing to act even on clear warnings from regional leaders, and that his policies of containment and appeasement, aimed at maintaining temporary quiet and dividing Israeli society, cost lives that could have been saved.