Netanyahu to sue Israeli newspaper over report UAE warned him of Oct. 7 attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will sue the Haaretz newspaper over a story alleging that he had been warned by the United Arab Emirates president about the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack 10 days before it happened.

The report, which cited journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuva’s new book, “Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment,” claimed UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed called Netanyahu to warn him that Hamas was planning a major operation in the days leading up to Oct. 7.

“The Prime Minister has instructed his lawyers to file a libel lawsuit against the left-wing newspaper ‘Haaretz’, Shlomi Eldar, and additional parties who fabricated a false story against the Prime Minister that never happened,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X.

“This is a sinister libel with clear political timing, as part of the left’s election campaign, and there will be more such false libels,” the office added.

Netanyahu asserted that the story, which came out just weeks before Israel’s general elections, was a political hit job by Haaretz, which has been critical of the prime minister and his handling of the current wars.

The premier accused the newspaper of using a Palestinian official as the source behind the story that that bin Zayed spoke to Netanyahu about the looming Hamas operation.

Netanyahu also claimed that Eldar had received payment from a “left-wing” nonprofit associated with his rival Yair Golan’s political party.

Haaretz has said it stood by its reporting.

The Times of Israel quoted an Emirati source confirming that the call between Netanyahu and bin Zayed did happen.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry declined to speak on the matter, stating that it “does not comment on reports or speculations published in the media regarding conversations between government leaders.”

The story, which echoed previous reports that Netanyahu’s government was warned about the Hamas attack days before it happened, claimed Netanyahu dismissed bin Zayed’s warning.

Bin Zayed specifically warned Israel that then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was preparing a “major operation” aimed at destabilizing the entire region, Haaretz reported.

The Israeli prime minister allegedly believed an attack from Hamas could only come from the occupied West Bank rather than the border with Gaza.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas mounted a brutal assault on Israel’s border communities, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 others in a flashpoint that ignited war in the Middle East.

Netanyahu has garnered backlash over the security failures of that day, with the prime minister standing as the only top official who has yet to resign or leave office since the terrorist attack.

Despite repeated calls for an expansive investigation into what went wrong on Oct. 7, Netanyahu has rejected an official government inquiry into the incident.