Sara Netanyahu Accuses Yair Golan of Foreknowledge of October 7 Attack, Prompting Defamation Threat

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has suggested that opposition politician Yair Golan knew about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in advance, prompting him to demand an apology and threaten legal action.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday, Netanyahu questioned how Golan, a retired IDF deputy chief of staff, had been able to reach southern Israel so quickly during the assault.

“When you’re a military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7, already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister,” she said.

Golan accused Netanyahu of “spreading a false conspiracy” and “attempting to rewrite” the events. He threatened to sue for defamation unless she apologized within 24 hours and made a substantial donation to survivors of the Nova music festival massacre, where nearly a third of the roughly 1,200 people killed in the attack died.

The retired major general drove to the festival area during the Hamas assault and rescued several people fleeing the massacre, the Times of Israel reported at the time.

Golan is running in Israel’s October 27 election as leader of the left-wing Democrats. However, the opposition bloc’s frontrunner and Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rival is considered to be Gadi Eisenkot of the centrist Honest! Party.

Sara Netanyahu’s remarks echoed claims that Israeli officials deliberately allowed the Hamas attack to happen. Asked directly about the so-called “betrayal theory,” however, she distanced herself from it. “I’m not part of any theories and I don’t know,” she said.

IDF investigations have identified a chain of systemic failures preceding October 7, including failures to act on intelligence about Hamas’s “Jericho Wall” attack plan. A broader inquiry into failures across Israel’s political and security leadership has yet to clear parliament amid disagreements over its independence, with critics arguing that the government should not have influence over an investigation into its own potential failings.