{"id":610007,"date":"2026-09-08T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/610007\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:18:10","slug":"netanyahu-was-warned-of-7-october-hamas-attacks-book-claims-benjamin-netanyahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/610007\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu was warned of 7 October Hamas attacks, book claims | Benjamin Netanyahu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates<\/a> that Hamas was planning a large-scale offensive against Israel a week before its 7 October 2023 attack, but did not act on the warning, according to a book by Haaretz reporters.<\/p>\n

The claim, which comes amid a crucial election campaign, prompted Israeli opposition leaders to describe the prime minister as \u201cunfit\u201d for office, even as Netanyahu denounced the report as an \u201cabsolute lie\u201d and denied he spoke to the Emirati leader at that time.<\/p>\n

Haaretz said the Hamas<\/a> leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had warned a former Palestinian official that the militants were preparing \u201ca terrifying operation\u201d which he described as an \u201cearthquake\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the UAE president, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, spoke to Netanyahu a week and a half before the attack, and told him Hamas was planning a major operation.<\/p>\n

The allegations, published in Haaretz<\/a> on Tuesday, pile more pressure on the Israeli prime minister who has already faced heavy criticism for his handling of events before the 7 October attacks.<\/p>\n

Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took another 251 people hostage during the offensive. Hundreds of Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in continued fighting from consequent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The claims are contained in the book Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment, which, its authors say, is based on dozens of sources in Israel and worldwide, including very senior officials.<\/p>\n

\"UKUK condemns Israeli settler ethnic cleansing in West Bank – The Latest<\/p>\n

According to Haaretz, bin Zayed communicated frequently with senior Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and the Israeli president Isaac Herzog, with a UAE diplomat delivering a secure phone to the Israeli prime minister for the conversations.<\/p>\n

A week and a half before 7 October, the reporters say, bin Zayed called Netanyahu from the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi and, in a 45-minute call, warned that Sinwar was planning a major operation which the Emirati leader was concerned could destabilise the region.<\/p>\n

To bin Zayed\u2019s surprise, Netanyahu reacted calmly to the news, the report said.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement on Tuesday, several Israeli opposition party leaders declared their intention to find out what Netanyahu knew and when, and what actions he took, if any.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did he not inform the security establishment, and why did he not act to protect Israeli citizens?\u201d the statement demanded.<\/p>\n

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander who has emerged<\/a> as Netanyahu\u2019s main rival in the October elections, accused the long-serving prime minister of evading responsibility for security lapses and resorting to \u201cpathetic\u201d excuses, such as saying he was not woken up soon enough on the morning of the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu received dozens of warnings for 7 October and ignored them all. He is unfit,\u201d Eisenkot wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister also running in the elections, said Netanyahu \u201cbears personal and direct responsibility\u201d for the deaths on 7 October, the deadliest attack in Israeli history. \u201cNetanyahu cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

The leader of the centre-left Democrats party, Yair Golan, accused Netanyahu of \u201cendangering Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories about \u2018no one woke me up\u2019 are over. You knew, you ignored, you failed, you are to blame,\u201d he said, in a video posted on social media.<\/p>\n

Many Israelis have demanded an independent state commission of inquiry into the security lapses that failed to prevent Hamas\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties say establishing such a commission, whose members would be appointed by the supreme court, would be their first priority if elected. Netanyahu\u2019s government has rejected the proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-610007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}