Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has denied reports that he held a secret call with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in September 2023 regarding a pending Hamas offensive. Netanyahu has launched a libel lawsuit against Haaretz, the newspaper that first reported he failed to pass this intelligence to Israel's security chiefs. Opposition leaders are now calling him unfit for office, pointing to a security meeting on Oct 1, 2023, in which Netanyahu reportedly discussed the situation in Gaza but omitted the alert.

The New York Times and Haaretz reported that the UAE president's warning was vague and that Netanyahu allegedly believed Hamas would target the West Bank instead. These reports rely on two sources for the initial alert and five former officials who claim the security apparatus was not notified. Reporter Barak Ravid stated that Israeli intelligence services had already received the same data from the UAE via intelligence channels several days before the leadership call took place.