Dahlan Denies Likud Claims of Orchestrating Haaretz Report

Palestinian politician and former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan has vehemently denied accusations by the Likud party that he was behind the publication of a Haaretz newspaper report. The report claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warning call from UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed prior to the October 7th attacks.

Dahlan stated in a press release that the accusations are "false and misleading," asserting they reveal "the extent of embarrassment Netanyahu and his camp face internationally." He added, "Dahlan has never been a party to internal Israeli conflicts."

The Likud party had alleged on Wednesday evening that Dahlan was responsible for the report, which stated that Netanyahu received an explicit warning from the UAE president about a major planned operation by Yahya Sinwar against Israel, and that Netanyahu did not relay this warning to security chiefs. Netanyahu had previously announced he instructed his lawyer to file a defamation lawsuit against Haaretz and several of its journalists over the report, calling it "a false slander against the Prime Minister that did not happen and had no basis."

Netanyahu's representatives sent a warning letter to the newspaper on Wednesday morning before filing the lawsuit, demanding 2.5 million shekels in compensation. Haaretz, however, has maintained its commitment to its reporting.

Netanyahu accused the newspaper and other entities of waging a political campaign against him, viewing the report as part of a leftist election campaign and predicting that such "false slanders" would continue. He also denied having any phone calls with the UAE president between early September and October 7th, stating that the Prime Minister's Office, the National Security Council, and the Military Secretariat reviewed call logs for that period and found no record of such a call.