Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filed a NIS 2.6 million defamation lawsuit with the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday against Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet, Channel 12 News, and a number of journalists over reports claiming that he received warnings from officials in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt before the October 7 massacre and failed to pass them on to the heads of Israel’s security establishment.
In addition to the media organizations, the lawsuit names journalists Shlomi Eldar, Ruti Yuval, Uri Misgav, Nadav Eyal, Barak Ravid, and Attila Somfalvi as defendants.
In the statement of claim, filed through attorney Uriel Nizri, Netanyahu describes the reports as “two blood libels" and argues that the conversations attributed to him never took place.
The first report at the center of the lawsuit concerns a claim that approximately a week and a half before October 7, Netanyahu received a phone call from the President of the United Arab Emirates in which he was warned of a “major move" by Hamas, and that Netanyahu did not inform the heads of the security establishment of the warning.
The second concerns a claim that then-Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel personally contacted Netanyahu approximately 10 days before the Hamas attack and warned him of an unusual development originating from the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu denies both claims in the lawsuit.
“No meeting and/or conversation whatsoever took place between the Prime Minister and the President of the United Arab Emirates, nor did any meeting and/or conversation take place between the Prime Minister and Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel on the dates alleged or at any point between the beginning of September 2023 and October 7, 2023," the lawsuit states.