"Netanyahu, Under Fire Over Ignored Hamas Attack Intelligence, Secretly Visits UAE"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cornered by allegations that he ignored intelligence about Hamas's surprise attack in October 2023, secretly visited Abu Dhabi to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the epicenter of the allegations, according to local Channel 12 on the 27th (local time).

According to the report, Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in Abu Dhabi aboard a private jet on the same day and carried out his schedule.

This visit to Abu Dhabi comes as the issue has emerged as the biggest controversy in the general election campaign, following media exposures that Prime Minister Netanyahu received advance warnings about the impending attack directly from President Mohamed just before Hamas's surprise invasion of Israel in October 2023.

Previously, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the UAE president called Prime Minister Netanyahu in late September 2023, about 10 days before the Hamas attack, warning him that "Yahya Sinwar (then Hamas leader) is preparing large-scale bloodshed that will shake the region," but that Prime Minister Netanyahu brushed it off.

The report detailed that threatening remarks made by then-Hamas leader Sinwar to a high-ranking official of the Fatah party, which governs the West Bank, were passed through an adviser to the UAE president to Israel's domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, in mid-September, and that President Mohamed directly called Prime Minister Netanyahu out of concern over the lukewarm response from the Israeli side.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office completely denied the report, stating that no such phone call ever took place, but the opposition camp claims the exposure is true and is sharpening its knives to make the issue a central point of contention in the general election landscape.

Both the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the UAE Embassy have yet to issue immediate official stances regarding local media inquiries about the purpose of Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Abu Dhabi and the specific details of the talks.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.