Israeli opposition leaders yesterday called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit to serve after a report that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had warned him before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
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 called the report by the left-leaning newspaper “an absolute lie” and denied he spoke to the Emirati leader at that time.
Photo: AFP
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 October 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 said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, later killed by Israel, had warned a former Palestinian official that the militants were preparing “a terrifying operation,” which he described as an “earthquake.”
The former Palestinian official relayed the message to an Emirati adviser, who passed it on to the Emirati leader, who then called Netanyahu, the newspaper said.
The UAE normalized ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords under US 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 would receive funding via Qatar with an understanding the Islamist group was more interested in self-preservation than a devastating war with Israel.
Hamas on Oct. 7 stormed into Israel in a rampaage that included mass killing at a music festival.
The attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also dragged into Gaza 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.
The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed 73,658 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
Singapore’s air quality hit an unhealthy level yesterday, as haze from forest fires raging in Indonesia continued to spread across swathes of Southeast Asia. The city-state is currently one of the 10 most-polluted major cities in the world, coming in at third in IQAir’s ranking. Kuching, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, was No. 1. A government taskforce has “activated haze response plans” for schools, workplaces and community centers, Singaporean Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu (傅海) said in a video message on Facebook. Most people could continue essential daily activities, but the elderly or vulnerable should
PAINSTAKING PROCESS: Ice makers freeze water for up to 72 hours, replace tainted water with a fresh batch once freezing begins, and are constantly stirring In the historic Japanese city of Kanazawa, craftsmen painstakingly shape and slice blocks of ice destined to chill negronis in some of the world’s trendiest bars. The men work for Kuramoto Ice, a century-old company in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast and one of dozens of Japanese firms producing ultra-clear, premium ice. This luxury product, believed by those in the industry to melt more slowly than regular blocks, is a staple of Japan’s cocktail culture, but its popularity is also spilling over to bars abroad, from the US to Australia, who pay as much as ￥200 (US$1.28) per cube. Kuramoto Ice
WAR CRIMES? An investigation found that a network of countries are supplying Sudan’s RSF with weapons, including drone blamed for large civilian casualties Foreign weapons, military technology, fighters and logistical networks are helping sustain Sudan’s conflict and expanding the warring parties’ ability to strike deep into civilian areas, a UN fact-finding mission said in a report published yesterday, warning that some attacks might amount to war crimes. Sudan’s war erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. The conflict has devastated the country, displaced more than 14 million people and created what the UN has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The UN mission said
‘BYE BYE’: Judge William Tam said after hearing arguments for a leniency that a sentence would be given as soon as possible in Joshua Wong’s second prosecution Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under a Beijing-imposed law. It was the second prosecution of Wong, a former student leader in the democracy movement in the territory and one of its most recognizable faces, under the National Security Law introduced in Hong Kong in 2020 to quell massive anti-government protests the year before. Wong, 29, who wore a blue shirt, appeared thinner as he entered his plea. After hearing his lawyer’s arguments for a lesser prison term, Judge William Tam (譚耀豪) said that a sentence would be
RSS