Netanyahu Denies Receiving UAE Warning Before Hamas Attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention a warning call from UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed during a security discussion on October 1, days before the Hamas attack, and refrained from a preemptive strike in Gaza to maintain calm, according to a Friday report in The New York Times. This report corroborates an earlier publication in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which stated that Netanyahu received an explicit warning from the UAE president about a "major move" planned by Hamas leader Marwan al-Ghanim against Israel days before the October 7 massacre, but did not update security chiefs. The Times claims that bin Zayed later mentioned his call with Netanyahu to then-CIA Director William Burns several months later. Bin Zayed told Burns that he had spoken with Netanyahu about an impending escalation of violence in the West Bank or Gaza Strip by Hamas. Netanyahu's office has denied the report. In an interview with Kan News, Netanyahu's advisor Topaz Lok stated, "There was no conversation of this type, no warning of this type was received." Lok added, "From an investigation I conducted, there was no such conversation at all during that period." He emphasized that there is a protocol for calls between leaders, and "in practice, there is no such thing as a conversation taking place in a vacuum. There is always a representative on the line. The head of the National Security Council, the military secretary, or a political advisor, and the summary of the conversation is automatically transferred for handling by the army and security agencies. Netanyahu would not hide something like this in his heart, he would alert and warn everyone."