Netanyahu says he will sue Haaretz over claim he was warned about October 7 weeks before attack

However, Haaretz claims that Netanyahu "said that, in his assessment, Hamas intended to operate in the West Bank area, and he reassured bin Zayed that Israel was prepared for any scenario”.

He also allegedly failed to brief security and defence officials following the call.

In a statement responding to the article on Wednesday, the prime minister accused the paper of spreading “lies” about him.

“Contrary to the claims, from the beginning of September until October 7, no conversation took place between the Prime Minister and the President of the United Arab Emirates,” he wrote on X.

“The Prime Minister's Office, the National Security Council, and the Military Secretary meticulously reviewed the Prime Minister's call log for those days – and found no trace of it whatsoever.

“In general, the diplomatic conversations between the Prime Minister and the Emirati President take place exclusively through the Prime Minister's Office via the Emirati representative who arrives at the office with a special encrypted device.

“A thorough investigation conducted not only in the Prime Minister's call log but also in the records of entries to the Prime Minister's Office during that period shows no entry of the Emirati representative to the Prime Minister's Office.

“There is no possibility of entering the Prime Minister's Office without documentation and recording by the security forces at the facility.”

He also suggested that the story was “a malicious fabrication with clear political timing, as part of the left's election campaign” and confirmed he had instructed his lawyers to file a suit against Haaretz, one of the piece’s authors, Shlomi Eldar, and unnamed “other parties”.

A spokesperson for the paper said: “Haaretz stands by its reporting.”

Responsibility for the security failings in the buildup to October 7 has become one of the most contentious topics of political debate ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections on October 27.

Following the publication of the Haaretz report, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, one of the frontrunners to replace the incumbent premier, said: “Netanyahu bears personal and direct responsibility for the failure that led to the deaths of thousands of Israelis on his watch.

“His disregard for the warnings amounts to criminal negligence, which is why he is doing everything he can to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry that would expose the truth.”

Likewise, Yair Golan, leader of the leftist Democrats and a former IDF deputy chief of staff, said: “Netanyahu is unfit and illegitimate. His place is in prison for his crimes against the State of Israel.

“In letters written in the blood of thousands of Israelis – civilians and fallen IDF soldiers – we wake up today to yet another chilling realisation: the man serving as Israel’s prime minister is someone who abandoned his responsibilities.”

However, Netanyahu has insisted that the fault lies with the security establishment, claiming last week that officials failed to wake him up on the morning of October 7 and that the attacks “would not have happened” had they done so.

He reiterated this position in his response to the Haaretz piece, accusing Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, both of whom he has since removed from their roles, of “seeing all the signs indicating many hours before the start of the attack”.

“If, instead of fearing a miscalculation, they had instructed the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the standby units to preempt the blow, and if they had updated Prime Minister Netanyahu in time, the terrible massacre could have been prevented,” said his office.