Netanyahu under fire over report UAE warned of October 7 attack

Israeli opposition leaders on Tuesday called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit to serve after a bombshell report that the United Arab Emirates had warned him before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Haaretz newspaper, in a report excerpted from a forthcoming book by its reporters, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Netanyahu a week and a half before the attack and told him that Hamas was planning a major operation.

Netanyahu's office denied the report by the left-leaning newspaper, saying in a statement late Tuesday: "No warning was given to the Prime Minister from the United Arab Emirates before October 7th."

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander who has emerged as Netanyahu's top rival in upcoming October 27 elections, accused the long-serving prime minister of evading responsibility for security lapses and resorting to "pathetic" excuses, such as saying he was not woken up soon enough on the morning of the attack.

"Netanyahu received dozens of warnings for October 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit," Eisenkot wrote on X.

Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister also running in the elections, said Netanyahu "bears personal and direct responsibility" for the deaths on October 7, the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

"Netanyahu cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute," Bennett said.

The leader of the centre-left Democrats Party, Yair Golan, accused Netanyahu of "endangering Israel".

"The stories about 'no one woke me up' are over. You knew, you ignored, you failed, you are to blame," he said in a video posted on social media.

Many Israelis have demanded an independent state commission of inquiry into the security lapses that failed to prevent Hamas's attack.

Opposition parties say establishing such a commission -- whose members would be appointed by the Supreme Court -- would be their first priority if elected.

Netanyahu's government has rejected the proposal.

Haaretz said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had warned a former Palestinian official that the militants were preparing "a terrifying operation" which he described as an "earthquake".

The former Palestinian official relayed the message to an Emirati advisor, who passed it on to the Emirati leader who then called Netanyahu, according to the newspaper.

The UAE normalised ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords during President Donald Trump's first administration.

Netanyahu sees the UAE relationship as a key achievement, with the oil-rich Gulf nation maintaining robust ties with Israel even as much of the world criticises its relentless offensive on Gaza.

The newspaper, quoting mostly anonymous sources, said that Netanyahu replied calmly to the warning.

Another Israeli newspaper, the Yediot Ahronoth, reported last year that intelligence officials in Egypt, the only other country to border Gaza, had warned Israel that "something big is going to happen" shortly before the attack.

Netanyahu for years had sought to preserve the status quo with Hamas, which would receive funding via Qatar with an understanding the Islamist group was more interested in self-preservation than a devastating war with Israel.

Netanyahu has long instead focused on weakening the Palestinian Authority, led by Hamas's rivals, as part of his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Hamas on October 7 stormed into Israel in a rampage that included mass killing at a music festival.

The attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also dragged into Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.

The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed 73,658 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable