Report: UAE Leader Warned Netanyahu of Hamas Attack Before Oct. 7
Israeli officials say the leader of the United Arab Emirates warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible Hamas attack before Oct. 7, 2023, but the warning never reached the top of Israel's security establishment.
Israeli officials have confirmed that the leader of the United Arab Emirates contacted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the Oct. 7, 2023 attack to warn him of a possible strike by Hamas, according to a report by The New York Times.
A Warning Without Specifics
According to the officials, the Emirati leader's warning did not include specific details about the nature or scale of the planned attack. Without concrete information about what form the threat would take, the warning apparently was not treated as an immediate or actionable alert.
Information Never Reached Security Chiefs
A key element of the disclosure is that this warning never made its way to the heads of Israel's security establishment. This means the military and intelligence officials responsible for assessing such threats were unaware of it, leaving them unable to weigh it alongside other potential warning signs at the time.
Background
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a large-scale attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, marking one of the most severe security failures in the country's history and triggering a prolonged military conflict in Gaza. Since then, investigations and public debate have continued over why various warning signals were not identified or properly assessed in time by Israel's government and security agencies.
The newly reported detail about the Emirati leader's warning adds another element to the broader set of questions surrounding the flow of information and decision-making at the highest levels of the Israeli government in the lead-up to the attack.
