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The Prime Minister’s Office announced that Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed his legal team to pursue libel proceedings against Haaretz, journalist Shlomi Eldar and additional parties involved in a report published the previous day, according to multiple Israeli outlets including The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel. Netanyahu described the article as a completely fabricated story with sinister political timing ahead of national elections scheduled for October 27, the Prime Minister’s Office stated in a release distributed on his X account. A thorough review of call logs and visitor records from early September 2023 through October 7 showed no communication with Emirati officials or entry by any UAE representative to the Prime Minister’s Office, the statement added. The office further placed blame for the October 7 failures on former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, claiming they had indications hours before the attack but failed to inform Netanyahu in time.
Haaretz published extracts from an upcoming book titled Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval that detailed a 45-minute phone conversation between Mohammed bin Zayed and Netanyahu roughly 10 days before the assault, a Times of Israel correspondent reported after reviewing the article. During the call bin Zayed warned that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation described as an earthquake that would cause bloodshed, destabilise the region and potentially damage the Abraham Accords, according to the newspaper’s account drawn from dozens of interviews and documents. The report asserted that Netanyahu responded calmly, assuring the Emirati leader that Israel was prepared and that any threat was more likely to originate from the West Bank rather than Gaza, Haaretz stated. Netanyahu did not brief senior security officials on the exchange, the publication added.
The newspaper stood by its reporting in response to the threatened legal action, describing the lawsuit as an attempt to silence journalistic criticism, according to a statement carried by Al Jazeera and the BBC. An Emirati source familiar with the discussion confirmed the details of the warning to The Times of Israel on the day the report appeared, though the UAE Foreign Ministry issued a carefully worded statement that stopped short of confirmation or denial. The ministry noted that UAE and Israeli entities have maintained open communication channels since diplomatic ties were established and that relevant intelligence is shared when necessary, a formulation repeated across Reuters dispatches and AP coverage. Opposition figures including former prime minister Naftali Bennett described the Haaretz account as accurate and joined calls for a state commission of inquiry into events surrounding the attack.
The October 7 2023 assault by Hamas resulted in the deaths of at least 1195 people in southern Israel with 251 others taken hostage, according to casualty figures compiled by Al Jazeera from Israeli authorities. A New York Times investigation published in late 2023 revealed that Israeli officials had obtained a detailed Hamas battle plan more than a year earlier that closely mirrored the eventual attack yet dismissed it as aspirational and beyond the group’s capabilities. IDF probes released in 2025 indicated the military had missed three earlier Hamas attempts at mass incursions in 2022 and 2023, learning of them only after the current conflict through captured documents and interrogations, The Jerusalem Post reported. NPR coverage of Shin Bet assessments highlighted additional analytical shortcomings, including an overreliance on the assumption that Hamas was deterred and focused on governance rather than large-scale conflict.
Israel and the UAE normalised relations in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords, paving the way for direct high-level contacts that have included intelligence sharing on regional threats, according to background provided in multiple Washington Post and New York Times articles on the bilateral relationship. The Haaretz report suggested the alleged warning from bin Zayed originated from information passed by Sinwar through a Palestinian intermediary based in the UAE, with the Hamas leader reportedly using phrases such as a huge surprise and the mother of all surprises in messages relayed to Emirati contacts. Senior foreign officials from three countries were briefed on the contents of the purported call, the book authors claimed based on their sourcing. Netanyahu’s office countered that any legitimate intelligence would have been routed through official channels rather than a personal conversation.
The lawsuit threat arrives as Netanyahu faces sustained criticism over his government’s preparedness before the 2023 attacks, with several opposition leaders using the latest revelations to question his fitness for office ahead of the upcoming vote, The Times of Israel noted in its election coverage. Haaretz demanded in its response that the prime minister allow journalistic scrutiny rather than resorting to legal measures estimated in warning letters to seek more than 2.5 million shekels in damages if the matter proceeds to court, according to Ynet News. The episode has further polarised public debate in Israel, where discussions of responsibility for the single deadliest day in the country’s history continue to influence political alignments more than two years later.
