Before October 7 Attack, Netanyahu Was Warned, Report Says. He Denies It.

What the report says

The New York Times World reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has denied a Haaretz account saying he was warned before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that a major operation was being planned against Israel. The report centers on an allegation that the president of the United Arab Emirates had alerted Netanyahu to the risk before the assault.

According to the material provided, the denial came from Netanyahu’s office, which rejected the claim in Haaretz. The report itself is framed around whether senior Israeli leadership received advance warning and how that warning, if accurate, fits into the broader lead-up to the October 7 attack.

The issue matters because questions about pre-attack warnings have remained central to public debate over intelligence failures, government preparedness, and responsibility for the deadliest attack in Israel’s recent history. Based on the limited source text, the key point is the dispute between the Haaretz report and Netanyahu’s denial, rather than any independently confirmed finding.

More broadly, reporting on the events before October 7 has often focused on what Israeli officials knew, when they knew it, and how warnings were handled. In this case, the available evidence does not establish the warning as fact, only that it was reported and then denied.