Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates ten days before the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 that the militant group was planning a major offensive, according to a new report by the Israeli daily Haaretz. The newspaper, drawing on a forthcoming book by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, claims that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed held a 45-minute phone call with Netanyahu on 23 September 2023, telling him that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing what he described as a devastating operation — one that would cause widespread bloodshed and destabilise the region, potentially unravelling the Abraham Accords, the normalisation agreements signed between Israel and several Arab nations in 2020. According to the report, Netanyahu reacted calmly, told bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario, and suggested the greater threat lay in the occupied West Bank rather than Gaza. Crucially, he reportedly did not pass the warning on to senior security or military officials.

The account gains additional weight from corroborating voices. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking to the book's authors, confirmed that bin Zayed had repeatedly expressed concern in the months before the war about the risk of a Hamas attack. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he could confirm the report was accurate and that Netanyahu had received warnings not only from the UAE but also from Egyptian intelligence, choosing to ignore them. Opposition leaders Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, and Yair Golan also issued scathing condemnations, with Golan writing on X: