Netanyahu makes surprise UAE visit as reported Oct 7 attack alert controversy resurfaces

• Israeli media has also reported Netanyahu travelled to Abu Dhabi.
• Israel, UAE make no immediate comment on reported meeting.
• Visit comes after reports UAE warned Israel of Hamas attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi on Sunday and met UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a senior Israeli official told Reuters, in an unannounced trip that comes amid heightened regional tensions and renewed scrutiny of ties between the two countries.

Israeli television channels 12 and KAN, along with Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post, also reported that Netanyahu made a one-day visit to the UAE. Channel 12 said he travelled on a private plane and spent the day in Abu Dhabi. 

Neither Netanyahu's office nor the UAE foreign ministry immediately commented on the reports.

The meeting comes weeks after Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu about a planned major Hamas operation around a week and a half before the October 7, 2023 attack. 

Haaretz reported that the warning was not passed to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military.

Netanyahu has denied the report and threatened legal action against Haaretz. Opposition leaders in Israel have accused him of responsibility for security failures that preceded the Hamas attack.

The UAE has not commented directly on the reported warning, but has previously said that its relationship with Israel includes “open and direct lines of communication”. 

A UAE source told Reuters earlier that Abu Dhabi discusses security matters with other countries through the “relevant entities”, rather than “at the level of national leaders”.

The latest meeting is also notable because Abu Dhabi denied earlier this year that Sheikh Mohamed had met Netanyahu during the Iran war. That followed a statement from Netanyahu's office in May saying the Israeli prime minister had “secretly visited” the UAE and met its president.

At the time, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the two leaders had in fact met in Al Ain on March 26. The oasis city lies in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi near the border with Oman.

Israel and the UAE established diplomatic relations in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords, making the Emirates one of the first Arab states to formally normalise ties with Israel.

The relationship has taken on added importance during the regional conflict with Iran. Since coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its ties with both the United States and Israel. 

Reuters said the relationship with Israel provides Abu Dhabi with a channel to Washington as well as greater scope for regional influence.

The reported Abu Dhabi visit therefore comes against a complicated backdrop: close diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE, heightened regional tensions, and renewed debate in Israel over what Netanyahu knew before the October 7 attack.