Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a stream of reports that foreign leaders and intelligence chiefs warned him before the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack and that he failed to act, with the latest accounts published in the final weeks of Israel’s election campaign. Netanyahu has called the central claim an “absolute lie”, according to the Guardian, while the ABC reports that none of the governments named in the stories has denied them.
This is a Fiji News World Brief: a plain-language summary of a major international story, sourced to named outlets so readers can trace it themselves. Neither the Guardian nor the ABC reports any Fiji or Pacific involvement in these events. It is on this feed because Israel goes to the polls in October in a vote that will shape the next phase of a war that has already reset Middle East diplomacy and global energy and shipping politics — and because the question underneath the story, what a government was told before a catastrophe and what it did with the warning, is one voters put to leaders everywhere.
Key facts
- Haaretz reported on 8 September that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan phoned Netanyahu a week and a half before 7 October 2023 to warn that Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was preparing a major operation, the ABC says.
- The Guardian reports the call lasted 45 minutes and was made from the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, and that Netanyahu reacted calmly.
- Netanyahu’s office denies he spoke to the Emirati president in that period or received any warning from him, both outlets report.
- The New York Times, citing five former senior Israeli officials, reported that the Emirati warning never reached the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, according to the ABC.
- The Atlantic reported that Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, flew to Tel Aviv on 26 September 2023 with a warning that Hamas appeared to be mobilising for a major attack, the ABC says.
- The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing officials in an Arab government, that two Egyptian warnings had gone unheeded and that Kamel then called Netanyahu with a third alert.
- Israelis vote in October, with a state commission of inquiry into the security failures a central campaign demand, the Guardian reports.
Where the reporting comes from
Because these claims have travelled across several mastheads, it is worth setting out the chain before the detail. Haaretz published first, on 8 September, and its reporters have also set out the material in a book titled “Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment”, which the authors say draws on dozens of sources in Israel and abroad, including very senior officials. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic subsequently published their own accounts, each resting on its own sources rather than simply repeating Haaretz. The Guardian covered the Haaretz allegations on 8 September; the ABC drew the strands together on 30 September.
This brief names the originating publication for each claim and then identifies the outlet Fiji News read it in. Nothing here is independently verified by Fiji News, and no allegation has been tested by a court or a commission of inquiry.
Why it matters
The reporting cuts directly against the explanation Netanyahu has given for the worst breakdown of Israel’s national security. The ABC quotes him saying last month that had officials woken him on the morning of 7 October, “everything would have looked different” — an account that places the failure with subordinates on the night rather than with a prime minister who had been told weeks earlier.
If the foreign warnings were delivered as described, the political question changes shape: not whether Israel’s intelligence services misread signals, but whether the head of government sat on warnings from two Arab states he was simultaneously courting. Opposition leaders have seized on the reports to argue he is unfit for office, the Guardian reports, with polling weeks away.
The Emirati phone call
According to the Guardian’s account of the Haaretz reporting, bin Zayed communicated frequently with senior Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, with a UAE diplomat delivering a secure phone for the conversations. An adviser who sat in on the call told Haaretz the Emirati leader assessed that Sinwar “was preparing for a major event”, the ABC reports. Haaretz also reported that Sinwar had told a former Palestinian official the militants were preparing “a terrifying operation” he described as an “earthquake”.
The UAE foreign ministry said it does not comment on media stories about conversations between leaders, but added that “when necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities”, according to the ABC, which described the statement as a non-denial denial. That formulation matters: Abu Dhabi has neither confirmed the call nor disputed Haaretz’s version of it.
Egyptian and intelligence warnings
The Atlantic, citing Israeli, Egyptian, Arab, US and European officials briefed after the attack, reported that Kamel told Israel the window to prevent a disaster was closing and recommended economic concessions to Hamas, the ABC says. Egypt kept raising the alarm until two days before the attack, according to that reporting. The Wall Street Journal’s account, sourced to officials in an Arab government, adds a third alert delivered by Kamel to Netanyahu directly by phone after the first two went unheeded.
The ABC notes that most warnings Israel received in 2023 contained no date, target or method, but that intelligence officials told the outlets they were frequent and persistent enough to warrant attention. That caveat is the strongest defence available to Netanyahu’s office on the substance: a pattern of unspecific alerts is not the same as actionable intelligence.
The backdrop, the ABC reports, was a Gaza in visible distress. A freeze on fuel deliveries and Israel’s closure of the primary pedestrian crossing between Gaza and Israel had cut off 18,000 Gazans from work, and the ABC reports that serious peace talks were under way between Israel and Hamas through intermediaries during 2023.
What was said in the room
When Netanyahu gathered his security chiefs on 1 October 2023 to discuss Gaza, minutes of the meeting show he told them the goal should be to maintain calm, the New York Times reported, in an account carried by the ABC. The paper reported he said Israeli action in Gaza might sabotage a diplomatic deal with Saudi Arabia that he believed was imminent — a sequencing decision that, on this telling, subordinated the Hamas threat to the normalisation track.
The ABC also reports that the former head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, has declared he will sue Netanyahu for defamation, saying he warned the prime minister “of an impending disaster, and he ignored me”. Netanyahu, for his part, said he would sue Haaretz and its journalists over the account of the Emirati call, the Guardian and the ABC report.
The Abu Dhabi trip
The ABC reports that Netanyahu made a dash to the UAE on Sunday and met bin Zayed. Haaretz reported that he asked the Emirati president to deny the account of their call and to withhold any details about 7 October that could embarrass him, and that he sought what sources described as moral support.
Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, later said the visit coincided with incoming flights from Libya, Morocco, Qatar and the UAE, suggesting the talks concerned Iran, according to the ABC. The ABC says the UAE is among the Gulf countries with the strongest ties to Israel and, since the 28 February attack on Iran, is seen as the Gulf state most closely aligned with the US-Israeli mission — which is precisely why a public Emirati confirmation of the warning would carry weight, and why its silence cuts both ways.
The ABC further reports that the combined reporting has documented Netanyahu and far-right cabinet colleagues rejecting early opportunities after 7 October to recover hostages from Gaza, including a Qatari intervention with Hamas.
Election stakes
Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander described by the Guardian as Netanyahu’s main rival in the October elections, wrote on X that Netanyahu “received dozens of warnings for 7 October and ignored them all”. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility and cannot continue in the job, while Democrats leader Yair Golan accused him of endangering Israel, the Guardian reports.
Opposition parties say establishing a state commission of inquiry, with members appointed by the supreme court rather than the government, would be their first priority if elected; Netanyahu’s government has rejected the proposal. The election is therefore functioning in part as a referendum on whether the events described in these reports get investigated at all.
What is not yet established
Several things remain open. No government has confirmed on the record that the Emirati call took place; the UAE has declined to comment either way. Netanyahu’s office denies the call and the warning outright. The New York Times reporting that the warning never reached Israel’s security chiefs, if correct, is consistent with more than one explanation. Whether the warnings were specific enough to have changed Israel’s posture is contested even among the officials quoted. And the defamation suits flagged by both Netanyahu and Ronen Bar have not been tested in court.
The human toll
The Guardian reports that Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during the 7 October 2023 offensive. It says hundreds of Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and that Israel’s retaliatory offensive has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,000 Palestinians.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where did these allegations first appear?
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published the first account, on 8 September, according to the ABC. The claims are also contained in a book by Haaretz reporters titled “Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment”, which its authors say is based on dozens of sources in Israel and around the world, including very senior officials. The ABC reports that The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic followed with their own accounts, each citing their own officials.
What does Netanyahu say about the reports?
Netanyahu has called the central claim an “absolute lie”, the Guardian reports. His office denies he spoke to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the period described or received any warning from him, according to both the Guardian and the ABC. The ABC also quotes Netanyahu saying last month that had officials woken him on the morning of 7 October, “everything would have looked different”.
Is anyone taking legal action over the reports?
Netanyahu said he would sue Haaretz and its journalists after the newspaper published the account of the call with the Emirati president, according to the Guardian and the ABC. Separately, the ABC reports that the former head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, has declared he will sue Netanyahu for defamation, saying he warned the prime minister “of an impending disaster, and he ignored me”.
What was the situation in Gaza just before the attack?
The ABC reports that tensions inside Gaza were conspicuously high in the lead-up to 7 October 2023 because of a freeze on fuel deliveries and because Israel had closed the primary pedestrian crossing between Gaza and Israel, depriving 18,000 Gazans of access to work. The ABC also reports that serious peace talks were under way between Israel and Hamas through intermediaries in 2023.
How many people have been killed since 7 October 2023?
The Guardian reports that Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during the 7 October 2023 offensive. It says hundreds of Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and that Israel’s retaliatory offensive has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,000 Palestinians.
What is the state commission of inquiry the opposition wants?
The Guardian reports that opposition parties say establishing a state commission of inquiry into the security failures of 7 October 2023 — with its members appointed by Israel’s supreme court rather than by the government — would be their first priority if elected. Netanyahu’s government has rejected the proposal, and the demand has become a central issue of the October campaign.
Does this story have a Fiji or Pacific angle?
Not directly. Neither the Guardian nor the ABC reports any Fiji or Pacific involvement in the events described. Fiji News publishes it as a World Brief because Israel’s October election will shape the course of a war that has already reset Middle East diplomacy, and because the core question — what a government was told before a catastrophe and what it did with that warning — recurs in politics everywhere.
