Netanyahu to sue Haaretz over claims UAE warned him before October 7 attack

Israeli prime minister denies claim that UAE president warned him of Hamas plans before the 2023 attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony commemorating Israel’s Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers [File: Yefimovich/Reuters]

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will sue the Haaretz newspaper over a report that claimed he was warned of Hamas’s plans for an offensive days before the attacks of October 7, 2023.

In a statement on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu called the report “fabricated” and “false” and said he had instructed his lawyers to also sue Haaretz and the authors of the report, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yaval.

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The report, published on Tuesday, claimed that the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu about a possible attack by Hamas 10 days before the events of October 7, 2023.

Palestinian fighters killed at least 1,195 people in southern Israel on that day, and took some 251 others captive. The attacks prompted Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, in which at least 73,669 Palestinians have been killed.

The Haaretz report claimed that the UAE president, who is also known as MBZ, spoke to Netanyahu by phone and warned him of a threat from then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar .

According to Haaretz, Sinwar – who was angered by stalled prisoner exchange talks and Israel’s continued blockade of Gaza – had relayed the warnings to the UAE through an intermediary. He said he was preparing a “huge surprise” and told contacts to tell Israel “to expect an earthquake”, according to the report.

It said MBZ and his aides read this as a sign of an impending full-scale attack and passed the intelligence to Israel’s Shin Bet agency. But the internal security agency dismissed the threat.

MBZ then raised the warning directly with Netanyahu, who also brushed it aside, the report said.

The UAE has declined to comment on the allegations.

Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Tuesday saying that “the UAE government does not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders”.

The Haaretz report comes at a time when Netanyahu is trying to secure his position as prime minister in the upcoming Knesset elections in October. Netanyahu has been trailing in the polls, facing a fierce challenge from former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.

Netanyahu on Wednesday called the Haaretz report “politically motivated” and part of the “left’s election campaign”.

He also denied its claims of a phone call with MBZ.

“The National Security Council and the Military Secretary meticulously reviewed the Prime Minister’s call log for those days—and found no trace of it whatsoever,” he said.

In a separate statement, Netanyahu also claimed that the person responsible for Haaretz’s “false report” was the Palestinian political figure, Muhammad Dahlan.

Dahlan was expelled from the Fatah party in 2011 after a power struggle with the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and lives in the UAE.

Dahlan’s representatives have rejected the claim, according to Israeli media.

以色列总理否认阿联酋总统曾在2023年袭击事件前警告他哈马斯的计划。

以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡出席纪念以色列阵亡将士纪念日的仪式 [图片：叶菲莫维奇/路透社]

以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡表示，他将起诉《国土报》，因为该报的一篇报道声称，在2023年10月7日袭击事件发生前几天，他就收到了哈马斯发动进攻的警告。

内塔尼亚胡周三在 X 上发表声明，称该报道“捏造”和“虚假”，并表示他已指示律师起诉《国土报》以及该报道的作者 Shlomi Eldar 和 Ruth Yaval。

10月7日袭击事件影响以色列大选并加剧政治指责（共4条记录，此为第1条）

以色列总理内塔尼亚胡称“卡塔尔是敌对国家”（共4条，此为第2条）

列表 3/4：当今以色列“右”与“左”的含义

以色列四个政党提交了参加10月议会选举的候选人名单，名单如下：

该报告于周二发布，声称阿拉伯联合酋长国总统穆罕默德·本·扎耶德在 2023 年 10 月 7 日事件发生前 10 天曾警告内塔尼亚胡，哈马斯可能会发动袭击。

当天，巴勒斯坦武装分子在以色列南部至少杀害了1195人，并俘虏了约251人。这些袭击引发了以色列对加沙地带的种族灭绝战争，这场战争已造成至少73669名巴勒斯坦人丧生。

《国土报》报道称，阿联酋总统穆罕默德·本·扎耶德（MBZ）曾与内塔尼亚胡通电话，警告他当时的哈马斯领导人叶海亚·辛瓦尔构成威胁。

据《国土报》报道，辛瓦尔因战俘交换谈判陷入僵局以及以色列持续封锁加沙而感到愤怒，他通过中间人向阿联酋传达了警告。报道称，他表示正在准备一个“巨大的惊喜”，并指示联系人告知以色列“做好迎接地震的准备”。

报道称，穆罕默德·本·扎耶德及其助手将此解读为即将发生全面袭击的迹象，并将情报传递给了以色列国家安全局（辛贝特）。但该内部安全机构驳斥了这一威胁。

报道称，穆罕默德·本·扎耶德随后直接向内塔尼亚胡提出了这一警告，但内塔尼亚胡也对此置之不理。

阿联酋方面拒绝就这些指控发表评论。

阿联酋外交部周二发表声明称，“阿联酋政府不对有关政府领导人之间谈话的媒体报道或猜测发表评论”。

《国土报》的这篇报道发布之际，正值内塔尼亚胡试图在即将于10月举行的以色列议会选举中巩固其总理职位之时。内塔尼亚胡在民调中一直落后，面临着来自前军事首脑加迪·艾森科特的强劲挑战。

内塔尼亚胡周三称《国土报》的报道“出于政治动机”，是“左翼竞选活动”的一部分。

他还否认了有关他与MBZ通话的说法。

他说：“国家安全委员会和军事秘书仔细审查了总理那几天的通话记录，但没有发现任何蛛丝马迹。”

内塔尼亚胡在另一份声明中还声称，《国土报》“虚假报道”的责任人是巴勒斯坦政治人物穆罕默德·达赫兰。

达赫兰在 2011 年与巴勒斯坦权力机构现任主席马哈茂德·阿巴斯发生权力斗争后被法塔赫党开除，目前居住在阿联酋。

据以色列媒体报道，达赫兰的代表否认了这一说法。