Netanyahu Pledges Lawsuit Against Haaretz Over Alleged Advance Warning of October 7 Assault

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his intention to take legal action against the domestic newspaper Haaretz following an investigative report alleging that he received advance warning from the United Arab Emirates regarding Hamas’s planned offensive prior to October 7, 2023. The dispute represents a significant confrontation between the Israeli leader and the prominent publication over the contentious narrative surrounding intelligence awareness before the cross-border attack.

In a public statement issued on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu firmly rejected the assertions in the report, labeling them entirely fabricated and false. The prime minister confirmed that he had instructed his legal team to prepare defamation proceedings not only against the Haaretz publication itself but also directly against the two journalists responsible for the story, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yaval.

The contested investigative article, which was published on Tuesday, claimed that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, commonly known as MBZ, spoke directly with Netanyahu by telephone approximately ten days before the October 7 assault. According to the journalists, the Emirati leader sought to caution the prime minister regarding an impending, large-scale operation planned by the leadership in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Haaretz account, the warning originated from then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who was reportedly incensed by stalled negotiations over a prisoner exchange and the continued enforcement of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. The newspaper stated that Sinwar used an intermediary to transmit warnings to the UAE, indicating that an escalation was imminent.

The report noted that Sinwar claimed to be preparing a massive surprise and instructed his contacts to relay to Israel that it should expect an earthquake. Emirati officials and aides reportedly interpreted these statements as concrete evidence of an imminent full-scale offensive rather than ordinary rhetoric, prompting them to share the intelligence with Israeli authorities.

Haaretz reported that the UAE initially forwarded the warning directly to Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, which evaluated the information and subsequently dismissed the threat. Following that dismissal, the report claimed that President Mohammed bin Zayed personally escalated the issue to Netanyahu during a phone conversation, but the Israeli prime minister likewise brushed the warning aside.

Netanyahu has forcefully denied that any such conversation took place, dismissing the reporting as completely untrue. In defense of his position, the prime minister noted that a comprehensive review was conducted by the National Security Council and his Military Secretary, who examined official call logs from the period and confirmed that there was no record or trace of any telephone exchange with the Emirati president.

The publication of the report coincides with a politically sensitive period in Israel, as Netanyahu works to defend his political standing ahead of the scheduled Knesset elections in October. The prime minister has faced significant political headwinds, consistently trailing in public opinion surveys behind former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.

Addressing the political climate, Netanyahu argued that the Haaretz report was politically motivated and served as part of an electoral push by the left to weaken his standing among voters. He asserted that the timing and substance of the claims were aimed at undermining his leadership ahead of the upcoming vote.

In a separate remark, the prime minister also attributed the origin of the narrative to Palestinian political figure Muhammad Dahlan, accusing him of being responsible for the information published in the newspaper. Netanyahu claimed that Dahlan was the central figure driving the circulation of the story.

Dahlan, who has lived in exile in the UAE since being expelled from the Fatah political party in 2011 after a rivalry with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has denied any involvement in the matter. Representatives speaking on Dahlan’s behalf rejected Netanyahu’s accusations as groundless, according to reports in Israeli media.

For its part, the United Arab Emirates has declined to address the specifics of the investigative claims. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Tuesday reiterating that the government maintains a strict policy of not commenting on media speculation or published reports concerning conversations between international heads of state.

The controversy touches upon the intelligence failures surrounding the events of October 7, 2023, when Palestinian fighters killed at least 1,195 people in southern Israel and captured approximately 251 individuals. The attack prompted the Israeli government to launch a devastating military campaign across the Gaza Strip.

The subsequent war has resulted in the deaths of at least 73,669 Palestinians in Gaza. As the conflict persists and national elections approach, the political debate over high-level accountability and the handling of security intelligence prior to the 2023 attacks continues to dominate the domestic political landscape.