Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced trip to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and held talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan amid renewed controversy over an alleged warning before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly traveled to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and met with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a senior Israeli official cited by Reuters and multiple Israeli media reports.
The visit was not publicly announced in advance by Netanyahu's office. The UAE Foreign Ministry initially did not comment on the meeting, while Israeli media reported that Netanyahu traveled on a private aircraft and spent several hours in the UAE before returning to Israel.
The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive time in Israeli politics, after renewed media reports about an alleged warning Sheikh Mohamed gave Netanyahu before Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed meet in Abu Dhabi
Netanyahu flew to Abu Dhabi on Sunday for what Israeli media described as a closely guarded visit.
The Jerusalem Post, citing Israeli Channel 12 and a diplomatic source, reported that Netanyahu traveled by private jet and met Sheikh Mohamed. The newspaper said the aircraft departed Israel shortly after midday, landed in Abu Dhabi at about 3:10 p.m. and left the UAE roughly four hours later.
Reuters separately confirmed through a senior Israeli official that Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi and met with Sheikh Mohamed.
At the time of Reuters' initial report, neither Netanyahu's office nor the UAE Foreign Ministry had issued an immediate comment.
The UAE later confirmed the visit through its state news agency, saying Sheikh Mohamed received Netanyahu and that the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen and further develop them.
Visit follows controversy over alleged October 7 warning
The meeting has attracted particular attention because of reports concerning communications between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed before the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported earlier this month that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu approximately a week and a half before the attack that Hamas was preparing a major operation against Israel.
According to the report, the information was not passed on to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military.
The allegation has been disputed by Netanyahu.
The Israeli prime minister has denied the report and threatened legal action against Haaretz. The UAE has also not endorsed the newspaper's account.
The reported warning has nevertheless become part of a wider debate in Israel about what information was available to senior officials before the October 7 attack and how security warnings were handled.
Reports say Netanyahu sought clarification from Sheikh Mohamed
According to Haaretz, citing sources familiar with the matter, Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed during Sunday's meeting to deny reports concerning the alleged warning and a previous telephone conversation between the two leaders.
The report said Netanyahu was seeking what one source described as "moral support" from the Emirati president.
The Associated Press also reported that two people briefed on the trip said the meeting lasted about an hour and that the alleged pre-October 7 warning was among the subjects discussed.
Those details have been attributed to people familiar with the meeting and have not been presented by the governments as a full official account of the conversation.
UAE maintains communication with Israel
Although Abu Dhabi initially did not comment on the reported visit, the UAE has previously said it maintains open communication channels with Israel.
Reuters reported that the UAE has described its relationship with Israel as involving "open and direct lines of communication" since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 2020.
The diplomatic relationship was established under the U.S.-backed Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the UAE.
The relationship has survived major regional tensions since then, although the war and wider conflict in the Middle East have placed significant pressure on Arab-Israeli diplomatic relations.
The UAE has continued to maintain channels with Israel while also engaging with other regional and international actors.
A previous reported secret meeting caused confusion
Sunday's visit is also notable because it is not the first time Netanyahu has reportedly made an undisclosed trip to the UAE.
Earlier in 2026, Netanyahu's office said he had secretly visited the Gulf country and met with Sheikh Mohamed.
The UAE subsequently denied that its president had met Netanyahu on that occasion.
Reuters reported that a source familiar with the matter later said the two leaders had met in Al Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi near the border with Oman, on March 26.
The differing accounts surrounding that earlier visit add another layer of sensitivity to the latest meeting.
Security officials reportedly accompanied Netanyahu
Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported that Netanyahu was accompanied on the latest trip by Mossad Director Roman Gofman, National Security Council head and National Security Adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra, a senior Shin Bet official involved in VIP protection and senior members of Netanyahu's office.
The report described the trip as a short visit and said the Israeli and Emirati sides had planned to issue a joint statement after the delegation returned to Israel.
The security arrangements underline the sensitivity surrounding a visit involving the Israeli prime minister during an unsettled regional security environment.
The trip was kept out of the public schedule
The visit was not initially included in Netanyahu's publicly announced schedule.
Israeli Channel 12 reported on the trip while Netanyahu's aircraft was still outside Israel, according to the Associated Press. The Shin Bet subsequently filed a complaint with Israel's chief military censor, arguing that reporting the operation's details endangered the prime minister and personnel involved.
The incident illustrates the level of secrecy surrounding the journey.
Netanyahu's use of a private aircraft also meant that the trip could take place without the kind of public flight information normally associated with a high-profile diplomatic visit.
Netanyahu faces domestic political pressure
The visit comes as Netanyahu faces continuing political pressure over the security failures surrounding October 7, 2023.
Opposition figures in Israel have accused the prime minister and his government of bearing responsibility for failures that preceded the Hamas attack.
The question of what senior officials knew before the attack has become an important component of Israel's political and security debate.
Netanyahu has rejected the specific allegation that Sheikh Mohamed warned him about the impending attack and has threatened legal action against Haaretz over its reporting.
The latest meeting therefore comes against a backdrop in which information about pre-October 7 communications has acquired significant political importance.
UAE-Israel ties remain strategically significant
The UAE was one of the first Arab countries to establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords in 2020.
The relationship has created channels for cooperation in areas including trade, investment, technology and security.
The UAE also maintains close relations with the United States, giving Abu Dhabi a diplomatic position that allows it to communicate with several major actors in the Middle East.
Reuters has previously described the UAE-Israel relationship as providing Abu Dhabi with a channel to Washington and a means of maintaining regional influence.
The latest Netanyahu-Sheikh Mohamed meeting demonstrates that direct contact between the two governments continues despite the wider regional tensions.
What remains unclear
The full agenda of Sunday's meeting has not been publicly released.
The UAE's official account said the leaders discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen and develop them. Other reports have focused heavily on the controversy surrounding the alleged pre-October 7 warning.
It is therefore not yet clear how much of the meeting was devoted to that issue or what, if anything, was agreed regarding the competing accounts.
The reported request by Netanyahu for Sheikh Mohamed to deny the warning allegations comes from media reports based on anonymous sources and should be distinguished from the official UAE account of the meeting.
For now, the confirmed development is that Netanyahu traveled to Abu Dhabi and met Sheikh Mohamed in a privately arranged visit, while the circumstances surrounding the meeting have generated renewed attention because of the dispute over what the UAE leader allegedly told Netanyahu before October 7.
