Netanyahu threatens to sue Haaretz as opposition demands accountability over October 7 warning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed lawyers to file a defamation lawsuit against Haaretz after the newspaper reported that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed gave him an explicit warning several days before the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. The allegation has emerged against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s long-standing resistance to a public accountability inquiry into the attack and just weeks before Israel’s October 27 election.

According to the BBC, Netanyahu’s office denied receiving any warning from the UAE and described the report as part of a “sinister conspiracy.” The article published by Haaretz on Tuesday was based on an extensive investigation drawing on dozens of sources, documents and correspondence. It came from a new book co-written by journalists Eldar and Yuval, Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment.

Citing three “senior foreign sources” and a Palestinian adviser, the report said a representative of the UAE Embassy in Israel went to the prime minister’s office in the final days of September 2023 and delivered a dedicated secure telephone to prevent the call from being intercepted. Haaretz said Mohammed bin Zayed issued a clear warning during the call: Hamas’s then leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, had told a former Palestinian official that Hamas was preparing a major operation he described as an “earthquake.”

“Bin Zayed expressed concern that the event in question would not only lead to a bloody conflict but would shake the entire region,” Haaretz wrote. The report said Netanyahu, however, “responded relatively calmly,” believing that Hamas intended to act in the West Bank, and reassured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for various scenarios.

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu did not inform Israel’s domestic security service, Shin Bet, the Mossad intelligence agency or the military chief of staff about the call. The report also said the UAE leader subsequently told then CIA Director William Burns about the conversation.

Haaretz vowed to stand by its reporting and rejected Netanyahu’s threat of a defamation suit, saying its “sole purpose is to suppress journalistic criticism.” In a letter to Netanyahu, the newspaper’s lawyers wrote: “While your client has failed to provide the public with full accountability, the press is fulfilling its duty by gradually disclosing relevant information to the public.”

The UAE Foreign Ministry neither directly confirmed nor denied that the call took place, but issued a statement emphasizing that it had worked since the attack to de-escalate tensions, preserve regional stability and prevent violence. “Since relations were established more than five years ago, the UAE and Israeli government institutions have maintained open and direct channels of communication,” the statement said. “All relevant intelligence has been and continues to be shared between the appropriate agencies when necessary.”

Meanwhile, four leading Israeli opposition figures — Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Golan — issued a joint statement demanding an investigation. “Netanyahu and his colleagues in the October 7 government are unfit to remain in power,” they said. “We will act with the necessary coordination and responsibility to prevent them from causing another disaster.”

The report was published as Israel’s election campaign gathered pace, with polls widely framing the vote as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership. Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Haaretz of “blatantly interfering in the Israeli election.” Netanyahu wrote on X that the report was “obviously timed for political purposes and is part of the left’s election campaign.”

Since the attack, Netanyahu has faced accusations that he failed to act quickly in its aftermath and has resisted an independent public investigation into what happened. Haaretz’s latest disclosure will only deepen the suspicions of his critics.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters breached the barrier around Gaza and attacked nearby Israeli communities, military bases and a large music festival, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel subsequently launched its military campaign in Gaza, which has killed at least 73,670 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the territory. The United Nations considers that figure reliable.

On the same day the Haaretz report appeared, Britain announced sanctions on illegal settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli government immediately announced a series of countermeasures, including an order to close the British Consulate in occupied East Jerusalem. Although that development made international headlines, the central issue commanding attention inside Israel ahead of the election remained Haaretz’s report about the warning and the resulting storm over accountability.