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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared his intention to pursue formal legal action against the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz following the publication of an investigative report asserting that he received an advance warning from the United Arab Emirates shortly before the October 7, 2023, attacks.
In a public announcement issued on Wednesday across his official social media channels, Netanyahu vehemently denounced the investigative article, describing its central allegations as entirely false and completely fabricated. He confirmed that instructions have been handed down to his legal representatives to file lawsuits against Haaretz as an organization, alongside the two journalists who authored the piece, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yaval.
The contested report, which appeared in the publication on Tuesday, claimed that United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally reached out to warn Netanyahu about an imminent Hamas offensive approximately ten days prior to the cross-border assault.
The catastrophic events of October 7, 2023, saw Palestinian armed groups breach southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,195 people and the abduction of around 251 individuals taken captive into the Gaza Strip. The subsequent Israeli military campaign across the enclave has resulted in the deaths of at least 73,669 Palestinians, causing widespread devastation throughout the territory.
According to the reporting published by Haaretz, the UAE president, widely referred to as MBZ, purportedly initiated a telephone conversation with Netanyahu to share urgent intelligence regarding hostile preparations led by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The investigative account detailed that Sinwar had grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress in captive exchange negotiations as well as the ongoing Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. The article asserted that Sinwar transmitted explicit warnings through an intermediary to Emirati contacts, stating that a massive surprise was imminent and advising Israeli authorities to brace themselves for an earthquake.
Upon receiving the intermediary's communication, Emirati leadership and senior aides reportedly assessed the rhetoric as a credible indication of an impending full-scale military operation. Haaretz stated that the UAE initially transmitted these intelligence warnings to Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet.
However, according to the newspaper's narrative, the Shin Bet evaluated the incoming information and subsequently dismissed the threat as improbable.
The article further claimed that following the internal security service's inaction, the UAE president escalated the matter by contacting Netanyahu directly via telephone to convey the gravity of the threat. Haaretz alleged that the Israeli prime minister similarly brushed aside the alert, taking no preventative operational measures in response.
In response to the publication, the government of the United Arab Emirates maintained a standard diplomatic posture, declining to comment directly on the specific claims detailed in the Israeli press.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a brief statement on Tuesday explaining its position, clarifying that the state does not issue official remarks regarding media speculation or private dialogues between world leaders.
The emerging controversy arrives at a sensitive moment in Israeli domestic politics, as Netanyahu attempts to consolidate political support ahead of parliamentary Knesset elections scheduled for October. Opinion polls have consistently shown the incumbent prime minister trailing behind his primary political rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
Netanyahu has forcefully pushed back against the report's timing and contents, characterizing the piece as a politically driven attack engineered to bolster the left-wing opposition's election efforts.
Addressing the specific assertion that a high-level diplomatic phone call took place, Netanyahu insisted that no such conversation ever occurred. He stated that both the National Security Council and his Military Secretary conducted an exhaustive examination of official call records from the period in question, discovering no documentation or record of any call with the Emirati president.
In a supplemental statement, the prime minister attributed the narrative to Muhammad Dahlan, an influential Palestinian political figure, accusing him of orchestrating and fabricating the claims published by Haaretz.
Dahlan, a prominent political actor who was expelled from the Fatah faction in 2011 following an intense internal conflict with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has resided in the United Arab Emirates for years.
Representatives speaking on behalf of Dahlan quickly dismissed Netanyahu's allegations, according to reporting across Israeli media outlets, denying any involvement in generating or disseminating the disputed report.
The threatened defamation lawsuit underscores the intensifying political and legal friction surrounding the intelligence failures preceding the October 7 assault, as Israel's political leadership faces mounting scrutiny ahead of the national vote.
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