NYT Confirms Report That Netanyahu Knew About Oct. 7, Failed to Warn Officials

The New York Times has confirmed the report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz from earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew the Hamas terror raid on October 7, 2023 was coming.

Two sources told the newspaper that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, president of the United Arab Emirates, warned Netanyahu about the impending attack in a phone call.

On September 8, Haaretz disclosed that Netayahu received an “explicit warning” about the attack and left top security officials in the dark.

Haaretz Report

Haaretz’s scoop explained that bin Zayed and Netanyahu spoke during a conversation that “followed a standard procedure: A representative from the Emirati embassy would come to the prime minister’s bureau, bringing a special phone device that ensured the confidentiality of the call.”

But the call was a warning for the Israeli leader, the newspaper continued:

The call initiated by bin Zayed was unusual. A week and a half before October 7, 2023 the Emirati ruler called Netanyahu from the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi and spoke with him for 45 minutes.

In that conversation, bin Zayed warned that Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a major operation against Israel. Bin Zayed expressed concern that the event in question would not only lead to bloodshed but also destabilize the entire region and undermine the Abraham Accords.

Three foreign senior sources are familiar with the contents of the conversation.

One of bin Zayed’s advisors told the newspaper that “in his assessment, Sinwar was preparing for a major event” and warned the prime minister “Israel should be ready.”

“Bin Zayed urged Netanyahu to take the situation seriously,” Haaretz continued:

To his surprise, however, the prime minister reacted with relative calm. Netanyahu said that, in his assessment, Hamas intended to operate in the West Bank area, and he reassured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

Bin Zayed contacted Netanyahu directly because the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, he thought, had not acted on a warning it had received.

As well, “a similar call reached the prime minister’s bureau in those days from the Egyptian intelligence chief, Gen. Abbas Kamel, who warned Netanyahu of ‘something unusual, a terrifying operation,’ about to be launched by Hamas,” Haaretz reported.

Netanyhau did not disclose the warnings to his top security officials, Haaretz disclosed.

NYT Confirms

Today, the Times published a report that confirms Haaretz. 

“Mr. Netanyahu has denied the report,” the Times explained:

But a person who said they had spoken with Sheikh Mohammed and another person who said they had been briefed by someone on the call between the two leaders told The New York Times that the Emirati leader had secretly reported to Mr. Netanyahu that Hamas was considering a major attack.

The warning from the Emirati leader, however, never reached the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, according to five former senior Israeli officials. Mr. Netanyahu gathered his security chiefs days later, on Oct. 1, 2023, for a meeting about the situation in the Gaza Strip, and never mentioned the warning, according to minutes of the meeting reviewed by The Times.

Instead, he told them that the goal should be to maintain calm in Gaza, and he pushed back when some security officials said that Israel should consider military strikes against senior Hamas leaders in Gaza who were overseeing attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, the minutes show.

On October 7, Hamas attacked and killed some 1,200 people. The terror outfit grabbed 250 hostages.

While Netanyahu denies receiving any such warning, bin Zayed discussed the call with then-CIA Director William Burns. The sheikh told Burns that he warned Netanyahu. 

“Netanyahu was not the only Israeli leader to overlook warning signs in the lead-up to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023,” the Times continued:

Israeli security leaders repeatedly downplayed other signs that Hamas was gearing up for an assault, which were abundant at the time.

The Israeli military even obtained a Hamas battle plan in 2022, but military leaders dismissed it as unrealistic. The plan, which the military gave the code name “Jericho Wall,” turned out to be the blueprint for the Oct. 7 attacks.

In the years before the attacks, Israeli military and intelligence officials had concluded that Hamas was incapable of carrying out a major attack on Israel, and that Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in the Gaza Strip, was more interested in governing the enclave than fighting another war with Israel.

Israeli Election

The latest poll shows Netanyhau’s Likud Party trailing its opposition, The Times of Israel reported.

“A new poll by Channel 13 shows the bloc of parties opposing Benjamin Netanyahu in the lead ahead of next month’s election, but still far from winning the 61 seats needed for a majority in the120-seat Knesset,” the newspaper reported:

The result is significant because last week’s Channel 13 poll showed the parties supporting the prime minister holding a narrow lead, after months of surveys showing that bloc trailing. But like nearly all recent polls, that one predicted that neither side would win a majority in the October 27 vote.

Today’s poll finds that the presumed anti-Netanyahu bloc would win 52 seats, compared to 51 for the presumed pro-Netanyahu camp. Arab parties would win 13 seats — eight for the Joint List and five for Ra’am. The remaining four would go to the party co-led by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha, which has not committed to either side.

The Knesset is Israel’s legislature. It, not the voters, elects the prime minister.

As the Times observed, “The question of who bears responsibility for failing to prevent the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023 has become a dominant issue in one of Israel’s most consequential campaigns in history.”

The revelation about Netanyahu and the poll numbers cast doubt on whether Netanyahu can win a seventh term as prime minister, a post he has held since 1996.