'Unfit': Netanyahu battered with ouster calls after 'earthquake' Oct. 7 report
Israeli opposition leaders demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's removal from office Tuesday over a bombshell report that the United Arab Emirates had warned him of an impending Hamas attack roughly a week and a half before the Oct. 7, 2023, assault.
The report, excerpted from a forthcoming book by Haaretz journalists Shlomi Eldarand and Ruth Yuval, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had personally warned Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing a major operation.
According to the newspaper's mostly anonymous sourcing, the warning originated with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who told a former Palestinian official the group was planning what he called an "earthquake." That message was passed to an Emirati adviser, then to the UAE leader, who relayed it to Netanyahu.
"The emir hoped that despite his reserved response, Netanyahu would take the message seriously and take action," said an adviser to the UAE leader.
However, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu responded calmly to the warning and did not notify the heads of the defense establishment – Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.
Netanyahu's office denied the account entirely, calling it "an absolute lie" and disputing that any such call with the Emirati leader took place.
The report landed weeks before Israel's Oct. 27 elections and drew immediate condemnation from Netanyahu's rivals.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who has become Netanyahu's leading electoral challenger, wrote on social media that Netanyahu "received dozens of warnings for Oct. 7 and ignored them all," calling him "unfit" for office and dismissing his past explanations, including that he was not woken promptly the morning of the attack, as "pathetic."
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also a candidate in the upcoming vote, went further, saying Netanyahu "bears personal and direct responsibility" for the deaths on Oct. 7 and "cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute."
The UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, brokered during President Donald Trump's first term, and Netanyahu has long touted the relationship as a signature achievement of his tenure.
The Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas fighters crossed into Israel and killed people at a music festival and nearby communities, left 1,221 dead, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures, and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage into Gaza.
Israel's subsequent military campaign has killed 73,658 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose casualty figures the United Nations considers reliable, and left much of the territory destroyed.
The competing accounts are likely to intensify scrutiny of Netanyahu's security record as Israelis head toward the polls in seven weeks.