Netanyahu faces backlash over report he was warned of Hamas attack days before October 7

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a fierce political backlash Tuesday over a report that the president of the UAE had warned him of a major Hamas operation days before the October 7, 2023 attack.

The Prime Minister’s Office dismissed the report as an “absolute lie.” But with Israel’s October elections less than two months away, Netanyahu’s rivals seized on it as the latest evidence of what they say is a growing list of warnings he had ignored.

The four opposition party leaders – Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Golan – issued a rare joint statement calling for “an immediate and thorough investigation” into Netanyahu’s “failures and malfunctioning.”

“The Israeli public is entitled to know: What did Netanyahu know, when did he know, why he didn’t update the security establishment, and why he didn’t act to protect Israeli civilians?” the statement said.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the report is “true,” writing on X that Netanyahu’s alleged disregard for the warnings amounts to “criminal negligence.” Bennett’s political ally, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, said he too had publicly warned of an attack before it happened, as had top Israeli security officials as well as Egyptian officials. “If Netanyahu had fulfilled his role, the massacre would have been prevented,” Lapid said in a statement.

The report, published in the Haaretz newspaper, was based on findings from an upcoming book by Israeli journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruti Yuval. It said UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed called Netanyahu about ten days before October 7, and during a 45-minute call, warned him that Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major move against Israel that could cause bloodshed and destabilize the region. The report cited a message Sinwar conveyed to the UAE and Israel through a Palestinian mediator in mid-September 2023, warning of an upcoming “earthquake.”

Haaretz reported that Netanyahu reacted “relatively calmly” to the information, and assured Bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

CNN has reached out to the UAE Foreign Ministry for comment.

The Prime Minister’s Office strongly denied the report, stating Netanyahu “did not speak with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the period in question and did not receive any warning from him.”

The report comes as Netanyahu’s rivals work to make accountability for October 7 – the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, during which over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 abducted to Gaza – a central campaign issue.

Netanyahu has now outlasted nearly every member of Israel’s top security leadership from that day. Since the attack, the defense minister, the military chief of staff, and the directors of military intelligence, the Mossad and the Shin Bet, have all either resigned, been ousted, or reached the end of their terms.

Gadi Eisenkot, currently polling as Netanyahu’s leading challenger, said the Haaretz report shows Netanyahu “led Israel blindly” toward the October 7 failures and renewed his pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry if elected.

Nearly three years after the attack, Netanyahu has resisted demands from bereaved families and October 7 survivors to establish an independent commission to investigate the security and intelligence failures that enabled Hamas to conduct the operation.

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He and his associates have instead promoted a narrative blaming security chiefs for not waking him up the night before the attack despite intelligence indications that a Hamas offensive was imminent.

Last month, his wife, Sara Netanyahu, suggested that Yair Golan – a retired major general and the leader of the left-wing Democrats party who independently rushed to the Gaza border on October 7 to rescue survivors – had advance knowledge of the attack.

In an interview with the pro-government Channel 14, she questioned how Golan was “already dressed and ready” at dawn that day to head south, “while others knew nothing, including the prime minister.”

Golan demanded an apology for what he called a “vile conspiracy theory” and said he would pursue a defamation suit, calling the allegation part of Netanyahu’s attempt to “rewrite” the events of October 7 and deflect responsibility.

Following the Haaretz report, Golan wrote on X that the prime minister’s“they-didn’t-wake-me-up narrative is over. He knew, he was warned.” He called it “not an error in judgment, but a conscious and criminal abandonment.”

Hours later, the Democrats party sharpened its electoral campaign against Netanyahu, erecting a giant billboard over Tel Aviv’s main highway bearing the headline: “The 1,200 murdered file – Causing death by negligence.”

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周二，有报道称阿联酋总统在 2023 年 10 月 7 日袭击事件发生前几天曾警告以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡，哈马斯将发动一次重大行动。此消息一出，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡面临强烈的政治反弹。

总理办公室驳斥该报道为“彻头彻尾的谎言”。但距离以色列10月份的大选不到两个月，内塔尼亚胡的竞争对手们抓住这份报道，将其作为他无视一系列警告的最新证据。

四位反对党领导人——加迪·艾森科特、纳夫塔利·贝内特、阿维格多·利伯曼和亚伊尔·戈兰——发表了一份罕见的联合声明，呼吁对内塔尼亚胡的“失败和失职”进行“立即彻底的调查”。

声明称：“以色列公众有权知道：内塔尼亚胡知道什么，他何时知道的，为什么他没有向安全部门通报情况，以及为什么他没有采取行动保护以色列平民。”

前总理纳夫塔利·贝内特称该报道“属实”，并在X网站上撰文指出，内塔尼亚胡对警告的漠视构成“刑事过失”。贝内特的政治盟友、前总理亚伊尔·拉皮德表示，他也曾在袭击发生前公开发出警告，以色列高级安全官员和埃及官员也同样如此。“如果内塔尼亚胡尽职尽责，这场屠杀本可避免，”拉皮德在一份声明中说道。

这份发表在《国土报》上的报告，基于以色列记者什洛米·埃尔达尔和鲁蒂·尤瓦尔即将出版的新书中的调查结果。报告称，阿联酋总统谢赫·穆罕默德·本·扎耶德在10月7日之前的大约十天致电内塔尼亚胡，在长达45分钟的通话中，他警告内塔尼亚胡，哈马斯加沙领导人叶海亚·辛瓦尔正计划对以色列发动重大行动，此举可能引发流血冲突并破坏地区稳定。报告援引辛瓦尔于2023年9月中旬通过一名巴勒斯坦调解人向阿联酋和以色列传递的信息，警告即将发生“地震”。

《国土报》报道称，内塔尼亚胡对这一消息反应“相对冷静”，并向本·扎耶德保证，以色列已为任何情况做好准备。

CNN已联系阿联酋外交部寻求置评。

总理办公室强烈否认了该报道，并表示内塔尼亚胡“在相关期间没有与阿联酋总统交谈，也没有收到他的任何警告”。

这份报告发布之际，内塔尼亚胡的竞争对手正努力将10月7日以色列历史上最致命的袭击事件（造成1200多人被杀，250多人被绑架到加沙）的问责问题作为竞选的核心议题。

内塔尼亚胡如今的任期几乎比袭击事件发生当天以色列最高安全领导层的每一位成员都要长。自袭击事件发生以来，国防部长、总参谋长以及军事情报机构、摩萨德和辛贝特的负责人，要么已经辞职，要么被解职，要么任期届满。

目前民调显示内塔尼亚胡的领先挑战者加迪·艾森科特表示，《国土报》的报道表明，内塔尼亚胡“盲目地带领以色列走向了10月7日的失败”，并重申如果当选，他将成立一个国家调查委员会。

袭击发生近三年后，内塔尼亚胡仍然拒绝了遇难者家属和10月7日事件幸存者的要求，即成立一个独立委员会来调查导致哈马斯得以实施此次行动的安全和情报失误。

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相反，他和他的同伙却宣扬一种说法，指责安全部门负责人没有在袭击前一晚叫醒他，尽管情报显示哈马斯即将发动进攻。

上个月，他的妻子萨拉·内塔尼亚胡暗示，亚伊尔·戈兰（一位退役少将，也是左翼民主党的领导人，他于 10 月 7 日独自赶往加沙边境营救幸存者）事先知道这次袭击。

在接受亲政府的 14 频道采访时，她质疑戈兰那天黎明时分“已经穿戴整齐准备”向南行进，“而其他人，包括总理，却一无所知”。

戈兰要求就他所谓的“卑鄙的阴谋论”道歉，并表示他将提起诽谤诉讼，称这一指控是内塔尼亚胡试图“改写”10月7日事件并推卸责任的一部分。

在《国土报》报道之后，戈兰在X网站上撰文称，总理“他们没叫醒我”的说法已经站不住脚了。他明明知道，也早就被警告过。他称之为“不是判断失误，而是蓄意而为的犯罪行为”。

几个小时后，民主党加大了对内塔尼亚胡的竞选力度，在特拉维夫的主要高速公路上竖起了一块巨大的广告牌，标题是：“1200 起谋杀案档案——过失致人死亡”。