Netanyahu to Sue Haaretz Over Report of UAE Warning Before Oct. 7

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday he will file a defamation lawsuit against the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and journalist Shlomi Eldar over a report alleging he received a warning from the President of the United Arab Emirates prior to the October 7th Hamas attack.

According to a statement from Netanyahu's office, the report falsely claimed that the UAE president alerted him that Hamas leader Sinwar was planning a major event. Netanyahu's office asserted that no such conversation took place between September and October 7th, and that checks of the Prime Minister's call logs by his office, the National Security Council, and the Military Secretariat found no record of it.

Haaretz's report stated the conversation occurred via a special encrypted device brought by an Emirati representative to the Prime Minister's office. However, Netanyahu's office stated that all such policy discussions with the UAE president are conducted through an Emirati representative visiting the Prime Minister's office with a special encrypted device and are documented. Eldar himself reportedly stated in a Channel 12 interview that the conversation he claimed occurred, in which a warning was allegedly given to the Prime Minister, happened in this manner.

Further investigation by Netanyahu's office, including checks of entry logs to the Prime Minister's office during that period, revealed no record of an Emirati representative entering the office, which is impossible without security documentation. The Prime Minister's office also refuted Eldar's claim that Egypt had warned Netanyahu of a potential attack, a claim denied earlier in the war. Netanyahu's office characterized the report as a malicious fabrication with clear political timing, part of a left-wing election campaign, and suggested more false accusations would follow.

Netanyahu's office argued that the report distracts from the understanding that the heads of the IDF and Shin Bet saw the signs of the impending attack hours before it began. They suggested that if the military and security services had acted proactively and updated the Prime Minister in a timely manner, the massacre could have been prevented.