Netanyahu has repeatedly denied receiving warnings before 7 October. Now a source says he privately asked the UAE president to deny one of the accounts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed during a secret meeting on Sunday to deny Haaretz‘s report that the Emirati leader had warned him of an impending Hamas attack shortly before 7 October 2023, a person familiar with the matter said.
The source corroborated Haaretz‘s reporting on the topic from Sunday. Sources in the United Arab Emirates told Haaretz that Netanyahu and bin Zayed met at the airport.
Netanyahu asked the Emirati president to deny reports of their phone conversation as well as details concerning the events leading up to 7 October that could embarrass him, according to the sources. He also asked bin Zayed for what the source described as “moral support”.
The person who described Netanyahu’s request said they had first-hand knowledge of the meeting. That person and a regional official briefed on the meeting spoke on condition of anonymity as the trip was secret.
The UAE’s foreign ministry declined to comment on reports about the meeting, but said it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence”. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
According to Haaretz‘s investigation, published earlier this month, the Emirati president called Netanyahu about a week and a half before 7 October and spoke with him for 45 minutes. He explicitly warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation against Israel. Bin Zayed expressed concern that such an operation would lead to bloodshed and destabilise the region, threatening the Abraham Accords, and urged Netanyahu to take the warning seriously.
Haaretz reported that bin Zayed was surprised by Netanyahu’s response. The prime minister reportedly reacted relatively calmly, saying he believed Hamas was planning to act in the West Bank and assuring the Emirati president that Israel was prepared for any scenario. Netanyahu did not brief the heads of the security establishment about the conversation.
Netanyahu has firmly rejected the report, with his office calling the investigation an “absolute lie”, threatening to sue Haaretz and journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval. “Prime Minister Netanyahu didn’t speak to the president of the UAE during the period in question and received no warning from him,” his office said. Haaretz said in response that it stands by its reporting.
On Saturday, two sources, including a person who spoke directly with bin Zayed, confirmed to The New York Times that the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu of a “major attack” by Hamas shortly before 7 October.
A transcript of a meeting Netanyahu convened with senior security officials in early October 2023, obtained by the media, indicates that he told them an Israeli military operation in Gaza could jeopardise what he believed were imminent prospects for Saudi Arabia to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
Last week, an Emirati official addressed Haaretz‘s report, saying that heads of state do not discuss such matters at that level, according to the Emirati news site The National. The official did not deny that the two leaders spoke, or directly deny Haaretz‘s account of the conversation.
The reports about the UAE warning have emerged alongside new accounts of repeated warnings from Egypt in the months leading up to the attack.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel called Netanyahu days before Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack to warn him of signs of an impending assault from Gaza, after two earlier Egyptian warnings went unheeded, citing officials in an Arab government.
The call was one of several warnings delivered to Israeli officials in the months before the attack. Netanyahu’s office and the foreign ministries of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates did not respond to the Journal‘s requests for comment.
Netanyahu on Monday denied the report and said he has instructed to file a libel suit. “In the months preceding October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not meet or speak with Abbas Kamel, who was then head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, and no Israeli intelligence source conveyed an Egyptian warning to the Prime Minister,” he wrote on X.
He added that “Netanyahu has never met or spoken with the head of intelligence of a foreign country without their Israeli counterparts”. He also accused the media of running “a vile and false campaign” to pin the failures of 7 October on him.
According to the Journal, Egypt first warned Israel in June 2023 that the situation in Gaza was volatile and urged it to resume negotiations with Hamas. In September, Kamel travelled to Israel and warned that the situation in Gaza was dire and could “blow up in everyone’s faces”, according to the report. Israeli officials told him the situation was under control.
Kamel then called Netanyahu days before 7 October after the earlier warnings failed to prompt a change in Israeli policy, according to the Journal. Egyptian officials continued to warn Israel until as late as 48 hours before the attack, the report said. None of the warnings contained specific information about the timing or scale of the planned assault.
The Journal report came after The Atlantic reported on Saturday that Kamel had secretly travelled to Israel on 26 September 2023, 11 days before the attack, to warn Israeli officials that Hamas appeared to be preparing for a major assault. Citing Israeli, Egyptian, Arab, US and European officials briefed on the visit, The Atlantic reported that Kamel recommended economic concessions to Hamas to avert a confrontation.
Reports of an Egyptian warning to Israel came as early as 9 October 2023, when the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that Kamel called Netanyahu days before 7 October and warned him of “something unusual, a terrifying operation,” about to be launched by Hamas. According to the report, Netanyahu told Kamel, “In Gaza, we are in the picture, we are in control. Our problem is with the West Bank, and that’s where we are also diverting forces.”
Republished from Haaretz
Jack Khoury
Jack Khoury is a distinguished Israeli Arab journalist and veteran Arab affairs correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
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