Published : 10 Sep 2026, 06:32 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:49 AM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will sue the Haaretz newspaper over a report claiming he was warned of Hamas's plans for an offensive days before the Oct 7, 2023 attacks.
Netanyahu called the report "fabricated" and "false" on X on Wednesday, saying he had told his lawyers to sue Haaretz and authors Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yaval.
The report, published on Tuesday, claimed UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu about a possible Hamas attack 10 days before Oct 7, 2023, according to Al Jazeera.
Palestinian fighters reportedly killed at least 1,195 people in southern Israel that day and took around 251 others captive, an attack that triggered Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, in which at least 73,669 Palestinians have since been killed.
Haaretz claimed the UAE president, widely known as MBZ, had spoken to Netanyahu by phone and warned him of a threat from then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the Qatari broadcaster said.
Sinwar, angered by stalled prisoner exchange talks and Israel's continued blockade of Gaza, had relayed the warning to the UAE through an intermediary, Haaretz reported.
He said he was preparing a “huge surprise” and told contacts to warn Israel “to expect an earthquake”, the report said.
Netanyahu on Wednesday branded the Haaretz report “politically motivated”, calling it part of the “left's election campaign”, and denied claims of any phone call with MBZ.
"The National Security Council and the Military Secretary meticulously reviewed the prime minister's call log for those days, and found no trace of it whatsoever," he said.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu claimed Palestinian political figure Muhammad Dahlan was behind Haaretz's “false report”, Al Jazeera said.
Dahlan was expelled from the Fatah party in 2011 following a power struggle with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and now lives in the UAE.
His representatives have rejected Netanyahu's claim, as per Israeli media.
