Netanyahu makes secret UAE visit after report UAE leader warned him before October 7

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for a meeting with the country’s president, Mohamed bin Zayed, in a trip described as secret.

The meeting took place amid fallout from a Haaretz exposé concerning a warning that the Emirati leader had reportedly given Netanyahu days before October 7, 2023. According to Haaretz, Mohamed bin Zayed told Netanyahu that Hamas was planning an attack.

Haaretz published its article on 27 September 2026. Its account has placed the reported warning at the centre of questions about what Netanyahu knew before the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.

The visit brought Netanyahu and Mohamed bin Zayed together despite the uncertainty surrounding the warning described in the report. The account attributes the warning to the Emirati leader and says it was delivered days before the attack. It does not provide further details in the available information about the warning itself.

Neither the purpose of Netanyahu’s visit nor the substance of his discussion with Mohamed bin Zayed was provided. It is also unknown whether other officials attended, or whether the secrecy surrounding the trip was planned from the outset.

No date beyond Sunday was given for the visit. The available account also does not identify a diplomatic agenda, any agreement reached during the meeting, or any outcome from the talks.

Those omissions leave the immediate meaning of the visit unclear. The reported meeting nevertheless came after Haaretz’s account of the alleged pre-October 7 warning, linking a confidential diplomatic encounter to a report concerning Hamas’s planned attack.

The Haaretz report says Mohamed bin Zayed warned Netanyahu days before October 7, 2023. Netanyahu’s subsequent visit to the United Arab Emirates was described as secret, and no details were provided about what the two leaders discussed.

For now, the public account establishes the occurrence of the meeting and the reported warning, while leaving the purpose of the visit and the handling of the warning unresolved.