Netanyahu instructs lawyers to sue Haaretz over pre-October 7 warning report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his lawyers on Wednesday, 9 September, to file a defamation suit against the newspaper Haaretz, reporter Shlomi Eldar and journalist Ruth Yuval after Haaretz published an investigation alleging that he had received an explicit warning from a foreign head of state before the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. According to Haaretz's Tuesday report, Netanyahu spoke by phone with the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, in September 2023, and was told that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation. Haaretz further reported that Netanyahu told bin Zayed he believed any Hamas action would be confined to the West Bank and that Israel was prepared, and that he did not brief his security or defence officials about the call.

In a statement posted on his official social media account and cited by Israel Hayom and the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu's office called the report completely fabricated and said no conversation whatsoever took place between the prime minister and the UAE president from the start of September 2023 until 7 October. His office said an examination of his call logs, together with records from the National Security Council and the Military Secretariat, supported this denial.

Haaretz said in response that it stood by its reporting. The dispute comes as Netanyahu leads the ruling Likud party into an election scheduled for 27 October, amid what the Jerusalem Post described as slipping poll numbers and persistent questions over his political future and his handling of the security failures that preceded the 7 October attack.