Overview
- Haaretz published excerpts from a forthcoming book on Tuesday that say UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed placed a 45‑minute call to Benjamin Netanyahu in late September 2023 to warn that Hamas was preparing a major operation.
- The Prime Minister’s office issued a categorical denial, calling the Haaretz account false and saying any information would have been passed through intelligence channels, while the UAE gave only a limited statement about routine intelligence sharing.
- Senior opposition figures seized the story and pressed Netanyahu on his handling of pre‑Oct. 7 intelligence, a dispute that has sharpened polling shifts showing opposition lists ahead of the Likud for the 27 October legislative election.
- No independent, court‑appointed inquiry has been launched as of the latest coverage, and opposition leaders renewed calls this week for a formal probe into intelligence failures connected to the Oct. 7 attacks.
- The allegation is framed against the scale of the Oct. 7 outrage—about 1,221 Israelis killed in the attacks and large Gaza casualties afterward—and carries wider implications for Israeli security practice and the Abraham Accords‑era regional ties that enabled such communications.