Benjamin Netanyahu is unfit to serve as Israel's prime minister, opposition leaders said Tuesday, after reports emerged that the United Arab Emirates had warned him before Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion.
Haaretz newspaper, in a report excerpted from a forthcoming book by its reporters, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Netanyahu a week and a half before the attack and told him that Hamas was planning a major operation.
Netanyahu's office, however, called the report by the left-leaning newspaper "an absolute lie" and denied he spoke to the Emirati leader at that time.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former military commander who has emerged as Netanyahu's top rival in upcoming Oct. 27 elections, accused the long-serving prime minister of evading responsibility for security lapses and resorting to "pathetic" excuses, such as saying he was not woken up soon enough on the morning of the attack.
"Netanyahu received dozens of warnings for Oct. 7 and ignored them all. He is unfit," Eisenkot wrote on X.
Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister also running in elections, said Netanyahu "bears personal and direct responsibility" for the deaths on Oct. 7.
"Netanyahu cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute," Bennett said.
Haaretz claimed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had warned a former Palestinian official that its members were preparing "a terrifying operation" which he described as an "earthquake."
The former Palestinian official relayed the message to an Emirati advisor, who passed it on to the Emirati leader who then called Netanyahu, according to the newspaper.
The UAE normalized ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords under President Donald Trump's first administration.
Netanyahu sees close ties with the UAE as a key achievement.
The newspaper, quoting mostly anonymous sources, said that Netanyahu replied calmly to the warning.
Netanyahu for years had sought to preserve the status quo with Hamas, which was thought to be more interested in self-preservation.
Hamas on Oct. 7 launched an incursion into southern Israel that caused 1,221 deaths and took 251 hostages, according to official Israeli figures.
In response, Israeli launched a genocidal war on Gaza, killing at least 73,658 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and left most of the Palestinian territory in ruins.
