NETANYAHU SAYS HE HAS FILED DEFAMATION LAWSUITS OVER OCTOBER 7 WARNING ALLEGATIONS

Wed 30 September 2026:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has filed defamation lawsuits against what he calls “false allegations” that he received warnings ahead of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In a post on X, Netanyahu called the claims “an absolute lie” that are being spread by “political rivals and hostile foreign actors” ahead of Israel’s October 27 elections.

Earlier this month, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu about a possible attack by Hamas 10 days before the events of October 7, 2023.

According to Haaretz, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had relayed the warnings to the UAE through an intermediary, saying he was preparing a “huge surprise” and that Israel should “expect an earthquake”, according to the report.

It said the Emirati president and his aides read this as a sign of an impending full-scale attack and passed the intelligence to Israel’s Shin Bet agency. But the internal security agency dismissed the threat.

The Emirati president then raised the warning directly with Netanyahu, who also brushed it aside, the report said.

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Ex-Shin Bet chief says he’ll sue Netanyahu

Meanwhile, Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar on Monday said he would file a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier in the day accused the ex-spy chief of knowing about the threat of a Hamas attack on the night of October 7, 2023, but choosing not to inform the prime minister.

Bar also said his lawyers would demand that top Netanyahu staffers be summoned to testify.

Netanyahu’s campaign blaming Bar for the attack “has no basis in reality,” the former Shin Bet chief said.

In an apparent attempt to quell the storm, Netanyahu on Sunday visited the United Arab Emirates to meet with its leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and reportedly asked that bin Zayed publicly deny a report that he had warned Netanyahu about the looming Hamas threat in a phone call just before the attack.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Monday confirmed the visit, but did not comment on its purpose.

Earlier Monday, Netanyahu flatly denied separate reports that Egypt’s then-intelligence chief Abbas Kamel had personally called him just days before the Hamas invasion. He instead accused former Shin Bet chief Bar of not alerting him on the night before the attack, and chalked the reports of repeated warnings to a “left-wing media” campaign aimed at pinning blame for October 7 on him.

NETANYAHU ASKED UAE PRESIDENT TO DENY PRE-OCT. 7 WARNING: REPORT

Netanyahu claimed that on the night before October 7, Bar, then-IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva “discussed all the warning signs” of a Hamas attack, but “Bar decided not to call and update the prime minister, not to alert the civilian security squads and IDF forces in the field, not to evacuate the Nova festival.”

The Kan public broadcaster reported Monday evening, based on an official investigation of the occurrences of that night, that there had been no contact between Bar and Halevi in the hours prior to the Hamas attack.

Netanyahu has regularly blamed Israeli security officials for the failures of October 7, and asserted that if he had been woken in the early hours of that day, when security chiefs supposedly discussed concerning signs coming from Gaza, he would have ordered swift action and prevented the attack.

He has also refused to establish a state commission of inquiry – Israel’s highest investigative authority – into the disaster, arguing that an independent panel appointed by the Supreme Court would be biased against his government, which has sought to curtail the powers of the judiciary. He has argued instead for a panel appointed by lawmakers, with its mandate and scope set by politicians.

Monday evening, the United Arab Emirates officially acknowledged Sunday’s meeting between bin Zayed and Netanyahu, though its statement made no mention of the report that the prime minister had sought an Emirati denial of the alleged warning ahead of October 7.

“During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and develop them,” the official Emirates News Agency said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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