Benjamin Netanyahu secretly traveled to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports that he warned the Israeli prime minister of an imminent threat from Hamas before the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people briefed on the Israeli leader’s trip confirmed Monday.
Separately, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc was seeking observer status in a Saudi-led maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports. The EU already has six ships deployed in the Red Sea to protect shipping.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East this Monday. Full coverage is available here.
Netanyahu made a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates
The Israeli prime minister had an hour-long meeting with the president of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, according to two people briefed on Netanyahu’s trip, which was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 television.
One of them said the discussions centered on an article published by the Israeli daily Haaretz earlier this month, which said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu about an imminent Hamas attack just before October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to deny the report, according to a person with first-hand information about the meeting. Netanyahu’s office previously denied the Haaretz reports.
The person, accompanied by a regional official briefed on the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret trip.
The UAE Foreign Ministry declined to comment on reports of the meeting, but stressed that it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence.”
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
—By Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo
EU seeks observer status with Saudi mission in Red Sea
The European Union is seeking “observer status” in a new Saudi-led multinational maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports.
The bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, made the announcement on Monday, ahead of a meeting in Brussels. The energy-hungry EU is facing record energy prices due to the war in Iran.
Kallas said she would request an expansion of the bloc’s small naval force in the The Red Sea called ASPIDES to help escort cargo ships through the key strategic chokepoint of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and protect them from attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Kallas said “the need is greater than ever” for more ships. It is unclear what operationally observer status in the Saudi-led coalition would mean for either the EU or ASPIDES.
Supreme Leader says Iranian troops defended Strait of Hormuz from enemy
Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khameneipraised his country’s fighters for allegedly preventing “enemy forces” from “moving freely” through the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei said in a message broadcast on state television on Monday that Iran’s enemies “do not approach” any closer to the strait than the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean.
Soon, “the Arabian Sea will also be free of them,” said the message, published on the second anniversary of the assassination of longtime leader of the militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon.
Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since the war-opening attacks on Feb. 28 that killed his father and former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
WHO says more people killed or injured in Yemen
The World Health Organization said on Sunday that it had recorded 164 deaths and 645 injuries due to the war in Yemen between September 19 and 26.
This brings the total number of casualties since August 6 to 4,481, including 838 deaths. The latest intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces has displaced more than 180,000 people.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least one, injure others
A woman was killed while her husband was injured when an Israeli strike hit a roof in Gaza City on Monday, officials at Shifa Hospital said. Another person was also injured and is in critical condition.
The Israeli military later said it was aware of the strike and was studying its results.
Later Monday, a second Israeli strike, against a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, left one person seriously injured, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it targeted a “military agent,” but did not immediately provide further details or identify the individual.
More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect almost a year ago. About half of them are women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which keeps detailed records that international organizations consider reliable.
Israeli minister pledges to continue West Bank settlement project
The polarizing Israeli minister responsible for settlement construction, Bezalel Smotrichcondemned the attorney general’s decision to freeze a controversial project near Jerusalem.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered that the project be suspended until after the October 27 elections so that it would not be “used for election propaganda.”
The project – known as the E1 settlement development – is particularly controversial because it would create a strategic section of the West Bank in a way that critics say would destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state.
Smotrich accused X Baharav-Miara of “interference in the election campaign” and acting in the service of Netanyahu’s political opponents.
Israel reprimands Spain for controversial remarks by Youth Minister
Israel summoned the Spanish embassy’s charge d’affaires following remarks by Spain’s youth minister who declared the country’s public support for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” – a slogan that implies a call for the elimination of the Israeli state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that the remarks by Spanish Youth Minister Sira Rego were “part of a systematic anti-Israel policy carried out by the Spanish government” and its leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Rego was forbidden to enter Israel in September 2025.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
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