UAE Silent on Report of President Warning Netanyahu Before Oct. 7

The United Arab Emirates is maintaining complete silence regarding a report published Tuesday by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which claims that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed directly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days before the October 7th Hamas attacks. Emirati officials are highly sensitive to any news concerning their president, especially reports that portray him as having attempted to help Israel defend itself and thwart the Hamas assault. An Emirati parliamentary source told Kan News that the matter is "sensitive" and that "no one in the Emirates is talking about it."

The report suggests that the central figure in the alleged conversation was not the UAE president or Netanyahu, but rather former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, who resides in Abu Dhabi and originally hails from the Gaza Strip. Dahlan, who is supported by the UAE, is identified as the Palestinian advisor mentioned in the report. If such a conversation did occur, it may not have been an explicit warning as described, but rather one piece of a larger puzzle that should have alerted both political and security echelons in Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli opposition party leaders have stated that "the public deserves to know what Netanyahu knew." A Netanyahu advisor has denied the report of a warning, stating, "No warning was received."