Netanyahu secretly meets UAE president in Abu Dhabi amid Gaza war tensions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, both governments confirmed late on Monday.

"The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and develop them," read an Emirati statement.

Netanyahu's office said the visit "focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and on regional challenges."

The secret trip came weeks after a bombshell Israeli media report that the UAE president had warned Netanyahu about an imminent threat from the Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of the deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 — a warning which the Israeli premier allegedly failed to pass on to security services.

Indeed, Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported on Monday that the purpose of Netanyahu's visit had been to request that Sheikh Mohamed deny having given such a warning.

Netanyahu's office denied that the prime minister had made any such request, just as it had also denied the original report.

Netanyahu files complaint against Israeli broadcaster

Earlier on Monday, before the confirmation of Netanyahu's trip, Israel's domestic security service Shin Bet filed a complaint against Channel 12, accusing it of violating censorship rules by reporting the visit before the prime minister had returned to Israel.

"This evening, Shin Bet filed a complaint with the Chief Military Censor, demanding that Channel 12 be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law following a severe censorship violation," read a statement from Netanyahu's office.

It noted that the report had been made public while the premier's plane was still outside Israeli airspace and therefore "endangered the lives of the prime minister and his wife, as well as the delegation, which included the head of the Mossad" spy agency and other top security officials.

Israel and the UAE: diplomatic relations

Sheikh Mohamed's hosting of Netanyahu was a significant development at a time when the Israeli leader is seen by many across the Middle East as the chief propagator of the war in Gaza, which has seen over 70,000 Palestinians killed — many of them civilians.

It is also the first time that the UAE has officially acknowledged a meeting between the two leaders after denying reports of a previous Netanyahu trip in May.

The UAE is one of only a handful of Arab nations which maintain official diplomatic ties with Israel after signing the Abraham Accords during US President Donald Trump's first term in 2020.

The UAE condemned the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 as a "serious and grave escalation" and said it was "appalled" by reports of Israeli citizens being taken hostage.

But relations have also been strained by Israel's subsequent war in Gaza, with the UAE denouncing "ongoing Israeli violations" in the Palestinian enclave.

Nevertheless, Israel reportedly deployed Iron Dome air defense systems, together with personnel to operate them, to the UAE during the war against Iran, as the Gulf state faced retaliatory attacks from Tehran.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru