Some 10 days before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned by the leader of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive move against Israel, but did not update Israeli security leaders and did nothing with the information, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Haaretz newspaper report cited a new book, “Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment,” by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, based on interviews with dozens of sources including senior officials in Israel and around the world. It said three senior foreign officials were updated on the contents of the 45-minute phone call at the end of September, and it cited a Palestinian adviser to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed who emigrated from Gaza to the UAE and had direct knowledge of the conversation.

It said Mohammed bin Zayed (known as MBZ) warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning major action against Israel that would lead to bloodshed, unsettle the region and potentially harm the Abraham Accords.

The report said MBZ was surprised by Netanyahu’s response in the 45-minute phone call, which was sanguine, with the Israeli premier telling him Jerusalem was on top of things in Gaza, that any Hamas action was likely to come in the West Bank, and that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

But on October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorists launched a cross-border, multipronged assault, brutally massacring 1,200 people in southern communities, mostly civilians, taking 251 hostages to Gaza, and sparking years of conflict that spread across the Middle East.

The Haaretz report said MBZ’s awareness of a Hamas threat had come from Sinwar himself, who in mid-2023 was frustrated by the lack of progress in negotiations for a Palestinian prisoner release deal with Israel.

The contacts for a potential agreement began in 2023. A senior Fatah interlocutor referred to as “Coal Eyes” would exchange messages with Sinwar representative Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas politburo member fluent in Hebrew, so that it would seem that there was no direct contact between the Israel and the terror group, Haaretz said.

In reality, conversations, focused on easing the blockade on Gaza and improving conditions in Strip, were “virtually direct.” Hamad and Coal Eyes would sit in a former Palestinian Authority official’s home in Gaza, with Shin Bet official Adi Rotem, responsible for the security agency’s hostages file, phoning in.

Hamas at the time held Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who had wandered into Gaza of their own accord, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.

According to Haaretz, a deal was on the verge of completion by the summer of 2023. After backing away from a demand that 500 prisoners be released in exchange for hostages, Sinwar was willing to accept the release of 50, while the Shin Bet was leaning toward accepting the release of 30, 20 of them serving life sentences, which Netanyahu approved.

The report said a Hamas official involved in the talks said Coal Eyes would emerge optimistically from meetings.

However, the prime minister repeatedly delayed convening the ministerial committee for hostages and missing persons, which needed to approve the release of prisoners, according to an Israeli security source.

Haaretz suggested Netanyahu’s hesitancy could have come from fear of reaching a deal with the terror group and backlash from the hardline members of his government, while Shin Bet officials managing the talks said the prime minister would express fear of leaks to the media.

Amid the breakdown in progress, Sinwar cut off contact with negotiators in early September 2023. A senior Shin........

© The Times of Israel