Israeli PM Netanyahu Makes Unannounced UAE Visit, Meets Sheikh Mohamed

ABU DHABI (Terror Monitor) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and met with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in a high-level meeting that came amid renewed regional tensions and controversy over reports that the Emirati leader had warned Netanyahu about a planned Hamas operation before the October 7, 2023, attack.

A senior Israeli official confirmed the visit to Reuters. Israeli media, including Channel 12, KAN, Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post, also reported that Netanyahu travelled to Abu Dhabi aboard a private aircraft and spent several hours in the UAE.

The UAE later officially confirmed the meeting through its state news agency, WAM. According to the Emirati account, Sheikh Mohamed received Netanyahu in Abu Dhabi and the two discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen and further develop ties between the UAE and Israel.

Reuters, citing Israeli officials, reported that the discussions also focused on regional security issues, including Iran. The meeting reportedly lasted around six hours, although neither side initially released detailed information about the talks.

The visit has attracted particular attention in Israel because of a recent report by Haaretz concerning an alleged warning from Sheikh Mohamed to Netanyahu before the October 7 Hamas attack.

According to Haaretz, Sheikh Mohamed warned Netanyahu roughly a week and a half before the attack that Hamas was preparing a major operation against Israel. The newspaper reported that the warning was not passed on to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military. Netanyahu has denied the report and threatened legal action against Haaretz.

Israeli media subsequently reported that Netanyahu raised the issue during his meeting with Sheikh Mohamed and asked the Emirati leader to deny the report. The claim has been attributed to sources familiar with the meeting and has not been publicly confirmed by the UAE.

The UAE has not endorsed the Haaretz account. Instead, Emirati officials have previously said that Abu Dhabi and Israel have maintained open and direct channels of communication since establishing diplomatic relations in 2020. Reuters has also reported that the UAE had previously said security matters were handled through relevant authorities rather than directly at the level of national leaders.

The latest meeting also follows conflicting accounts over an earlier reported Netanyahu visit to the UAE. In May, Netanyahu's office said he had secretly visited the Gulf state and met Sheikh Mohamed, but the UAE subsequently denied that the two leaders had met. A source familiar with that episode later told Reuters that the two had met in Al Ain on March 26.

The UAE and Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. Since then, the two countries have developed political, economic and security ties, although the relationship has also been affected by the wars and security crises that have unfolded across the Middle East.

The latest Abu Dhabi meeting comes as Israel faces heightened regional security concerns and as attention in the country remains focused on allegations surrounding warnings received before the October 7 attack. The reported warning and Netanyahu's response to it remain disputed, with the relevant accounts coming from Israeli media and officials rather than a publicly released joint account of the meeting by both governments.