Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t disclose an alleged warning from the UAE president that Hamas was planning a significant assault throughout a Gaza safety assembly held on October 1, 2023, six days earlier than the October 7 bloodbath, The New York Instances reported on Friday.
The report cited 5 former Israeli safety officers, who additional advised the NYT that Netanyahu rejected solutions from his safety chiefs to strike Hamas leaders in Gaza who have been directing terror assaults within the West Financial institution, saying as a substitute that Israel ought to preserve calm amid a possible diplomatic settlement with Saudi Arabia.
In accordance with the report, Netanyahu believed the Saudi-Israeli deal to be imminent, worrying that any IDF operations in Gaza would derail such a deal.
The NYT report follows an investigation revealed by Haaretz on September 8 alleging that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) warned Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a significant operation in opposition to Israel within the days previous to the October 7 assault, with three overseas sources saying that the prime minister dismissed the menace.
Netanyahu has denied the allegations, with the prime minister saying on September 9 that he instructed his legal professionals to concern a libel lawsuit in opposition to Haaretz and the journalist who coated the story, Shlomi Eldar, in line with the Prime Minister’s Workplace (PMO).
“A radical examination not solely of the prime minister’s name log, but additionally of the data of entries into the Prime Minister’s Workplace throughout this era, doesn’t present any entry of the Emirati consultant into the Prime Minister’s Workplace,” the PMO mentioned of the allegations, accusing it of being a part of a “sinister plot with clear political timing, as a part of the Left’s election marketing campaign,” including on the time that there can be “extra such false plots.”
The UAE additionally rejected the claims made within the Haaretz report, with an official UAE supply advised the state-owned Abu Dhabi English-language newspaper The Nationwide on Sunday that “the UAE discusses safety issues with different international locations by the related our bodies, and doesn’t focus on particulars of this sort on the stage of the leaders of the international locations.”
Shir Perets, Tzvi Jasper, Idan Kweller, and Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
