Official UAE source denies claim that Ben-Zaid warned Netanyahu before massacre

An official source at the UAE told The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi that 'the UAE discusses security matters with other countries through the relevant bodies and does not discuss such details at the level of national leaders,' in response to claims that President Muhammad bin Zaid warned Netanyahu of a Hamas attack.

The Emirates newspaper The National, based in Abu Dhabi, published Saturday night the response of an official source at the UAE to its inquiry regarding claims that Abu Dhabi had warned Israel of an imminent attack by Hamas in the weeks preceding October 7. According to the source, 'the UAE discusses security matters with other countries through the relevant bodies and does not discuss such details at the level of national leaders.' The newspaper presented this as a denial of the claim that a warning was conveyed at the leaders' level.

The background is the Haaretz investigation from September 8, according to which ten days before the massacre, President Muhammad bin Zaid called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in a conversation lasting approximately 45 minutes warned him that Yahya Sinwar was planning a significant move against Israel. The Prime Minister's Office denied the report from the outset and claimed that no conversation took place between the two during the period in question and that Netanyahu did not receive a warning. Netanyahu announced his intention to file a defamation lawsuit against Haaretz and the authors of the investigation.

The new response from Abu Dhabi comes after a more cautious statement from the UAE Foreign Ministry from September 8, in which the ministry refrained from confirming or denying the conversation itself and said the government does not respond to reports or speculation about conversations between leaders. In that statement it was written that 'when necessary, all relevant intelligence was transferred and continues to be transferred between the relevant parties.' Likud claimed in response to the publication that behind the Haaretz report stands senior Palestinian official Muhammad Dahlan, who sits in the Emirates, and called the incident foreign interference in Israel's elections. The matter has become a central issue in the election campaign in recent weeks, regarding which warnings reached the political level before October 7.