Fresh allegations that the United Arab Emirates warned Israel ahead of the 7 October, 2023 Hamas onslaught have detonated a new political storm in Jerusalem, with opposition leaders declaring Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu unfit for office.
Haaretz newspaper, citing an excerpt from a forthcoming book by its reporters, reported that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke with Mr Netanyahu about a week and a half before the attack and cautioned that Hamas was planning a major operation.
Mr Netanyahu’s office rejected the account outright, branding the left-leaning newspaper’s report “an absolute lie” and denying that any such conversation with the Emirati leader took place at that time.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander who has emerged as Netanyahu’s top rival in upcoming 27 October elections, said the long-serving prime minister was dodging responsibility for the security failures. He accused Mr Netanyahu of leaning on “pathetic” explanations, including claims that he was not woken up early enough on the morning of the attack.
“Netanyahu received dozens of warnings for 7 October and ignored them all. He is unfit,” Mr Eisenkot wrote on X.
Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister also running in elections, said Mr Netanyahu “bears personal and direct responsibility” for the deaths on 7 October, the deadliest attack in Israeli history.
“Netanyahu cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute,” Mr 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.
The renewed controversy lands amid persistent calls inside Israel for an independent state commission of inquiry into the intelligence and security breakdowns that failed to stop Hamas’s attack.
Opposition parties say creating such a commission – with members appointed by the Supreme Court – would be their first order of business if elected. Netanyahu’s government has rejected the idea.
Haaretz reported that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had told a former Palestinian official that militants were preparing “a terrifying operation” that he likened to an “earthquake”.
According to the newspaper, the former Palestinian official passed the warning to an Emirati advisor, who relayed it to the Emirati leader, who then called Mr Netanyahu.
The UAE normalised ties with Israel in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords during President Donald Trump’s first administration, a diplomatic breakthrough Mr Netanyahu has long pointed to as a signature accomplishment.
Haaretz, quoting mostly anonymous sources, said Mr Netanyahu responded calmly to the warning.
For years, Mr Netanyahu had pursued a policy of maintaining the status quo with Hamas, which received funding via Qatar under an understanding that the Islamist group was more focused on self-preservation than on triggering a devastating war with Israel.
Almost three years ago, Hamas 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.
Israel’s ensuing offensive has devastated much of Gaza and killed 73,658 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Nicaragua has accused Germany of “multiple violations of international law” at the United Nations top court, pressing a case that Berlin is complicit in what it described as genocide in Gaza.
The central American country has taken Germany to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, arguing that Berlin has breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through its support for Israel, including arms shipments.
“Nicaragua invokes Germany’s responsibility in connection to multiple violations of international law, particularly in respect of the odious scourge of genocide and international humanitarian law,” ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez told the court.
Mr Gomez said Nicaragua’s claims “involve the most serious breaches of obligations arising under … general international law.”
The court – which rules on legal disputes between countries – has already rejected Nicaragua’s request for emergency measures against Germany, including an order to halt arms exports to Israel.
The proceedings continue, however, and Germany is now asking the judges to dismiss the case in full, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction and that Nicaragua’s claims are unfounded.
