JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports he’d warned the Israeli prime minister about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place Sunday, two people who were briefed on the Israeli leader’s trip confirmed Monday.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the bloc is applying for observer status in a Saudi-led maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports. The EU already has six vessels deployed to the Red Sea to protect shipping.
Netanyahu made a secret visit to the UAE
The Israeli prime minister’s meeting with the UAE’s president lasted an hour, according to the two people briefed on Netanyahu’s trip, which was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.
One of them said the talks focused on a report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz this month that said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu about a looming attack by Hamas just ahead of Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to deny the report, according to a person said to have firsthand information about the meeting. Netanyahu’s office previously denied the Haaretz report.
The person, along with a regional official briefed on the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret trip.
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on reports about the meeting but stressed it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence.”
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
But the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, filed a complaint with Israel’s chief military censor against Channel 12 over what it called a serious censorship violation. It said the timing of the report endangered the prime minister and the operation and forces on the ground and exposed Shin Bet operational methods.
The prime minister’s office said Channel 12 reported the flight at 9:38 p.m. while the plane was still outside Israel and about an hour before it landed.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 1 person, wound others
Meanwhile in Gaza City on Monday, a woman was killed and her husband wounded when an Israeli strike hit a rooftop, Shifa Hospital officials said. Another person was also wounded and in critical condition.
The Israeli military later said it was aware of the strike and was looking into its results.
Later Monday, a second Israeli strike, on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, left one person critically injured, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it targeted a “military operative,” but did not immediately provide further details or identify the individual.
More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago. Around half of that number are women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which maintains detailed records that international organizations consider reliable.
U.N. envoy says West Bank settler violence at ‘unprecedented levels’
In related developments, the United Nations’ acting Mideast envoy said Monday that settler violence in the West Bank has reached “unprecedented levels” — often with Israeli forces present.
Ramiz Alakbarov told the U.N. Security Council that 630 documented settler attacks between June 13 and Sept. 18 resulted in casualties, property damage or both. Three Palestinian communities were “fully depopulated” during that period, he said, “bringing to 49 the number of communities fully displaced under similar circumstances since January 2023.”
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, in violation of international law, also threatens prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state and a two-state solution, Alakbarov said.
An Israeli minister vows to press on with West Bank settlement project
Israel’s polarizing Cabinet minister in charge of settlement construction, Bezalel Smotrich, condemned a decision by the attorney general to freeze a contentious project near Jerusalem.
Atty. Gen. Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the project to be put on hold until after the Oct. 27 elections so it wouldn’t “be used for election propaganda.”
The project — known as E1 settlement development — is especially controversial because it would carve out a strategic section of the West Bank in a way that critics say would destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state.
On X, Smotrich accused Baharav-Miara of “interfering in the election campaign” and acting in the service of Netanyahu’s political opponents.
Federman and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo.
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