Former Fatah official says he relayed Yahya Sinwar’s pre-October 7 warning to UAE adviser, not Shin Bet

Topic: defense & securityRegion: Middle EastUpdated: i3 outletsSources: 6⚠ Bias gap — sources divergeSpectrum: Mixed⏱ 3 min read

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Story Summary

SITUATION

Former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida says he conveyed a warning from then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to Israeli intelligence weeks before the October 7 attack (per Middle East Eye). Middle East Eye reports Haaretz and The Times of Israel said the warning reached UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and was allegedly passed to Benjamin Netanyahu, which Netanyahu denied (per Middle East Eye).

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KEY FACTS

Sufian Abu Zaida revealed in a Facebook video that he is the figure known as "Coal Eyes," the channel through which Yahya Sinwar conveyed warnings before October 7.
Yahya Sinwar met one-on-one with Abu Zaida in September 2023 and said: "Tell the Israelis that if they do not move forward, I am preparing a huge surprise for them."
Abu Zaida said he passed the warning to a Palestinian friend who served as an adviser to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, not to the Shin Bet.
Abu Zaida feared reporting directly to the Shin Bet because he worried he would be accused of cooperating with Sinwar and feared for his life if the information was not passed on.
In mid-September 2023, Sinwar asked Abu Zaida whether the message had been passed on; Abu Zaida said it had not, and Sinwar responded: "Send them a message that I am preparing a surprise fr".
Haaretz previously reported the September 2023 meeting between Sinwar and Abu Zaida; the Jerusalem Post article cites that reporting and Abu Zaida's video.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The immediate backdrop is the broader regional conflagration that has linked the Gaza war that began after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack and the wider Iran–Israel–United States confrontation that escalated into open strikes in March 2026; fighting inside Gaza, repeated Israeli military operations there, and cross-border exchanges involving Iran and its regional proxies have framed the security environment for all actors.

Structurally, those conditions rest on a tangled web of agreements and ruptures: the 1993 Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority and partial Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza, the 2007 split following Hamas’s violent takeover of Gaza created competing Palestinian governance structures, and the 2020 Abraham Accords — beginning with the UAE–Israel normalization on 13 August 2020 — altered Arab states’ diplomatic and security relations with Israel.

Brief

Sufian Abu Zaida, a former Palestinian Authority minister, says he passed a warning from then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to Israeli intelligence weeks before the October 7 attack, according to a summary of reporting cited by Middle East Eye.

Middle East Eye says The Times of Israel first reported Abu Zaida’s disclosure and Haaretz reported that the warning reached UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and was allegedly relayed to Benjamin Netanyahu; the latter reportedly denied receiving such a warning.

Abu Zaida’s claim, as presented in the stories Middle East Eye cites, rests on his own account rather than on publicly released Israeli government confirmation, and the outlets cited differ on how far the alleged warning traveled and who ultimately received it.

The central issue is whether Israeli intelligence received an explicit, actionable warning from Sinwar before October 7 and, if so, whether that warning was shared with regional leaders; Middle East Eye emphasizes the reporting chain through The Times of Israel and Haaretz but does not present official Israeli acknowledgement.

The significance of Abu Zaida’s statement lies in its potential to reshape questions about intelligence sharing and regional diplomacy in the run-up to October 7; at the same time, the report is limited to Abu Zaida’s account and secondary reporting, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported denial leaves the claim contested.

Given the narrow sourcing and the denial attributed to Netanyahu in the same reporting, journalists and officials seeking to treat the claim as verified will need direct documentary or institutional confirmation beyond Abu Zaida’s statement and the cited press reports.

Where sources differ

Bias gap0.80 / 2.0

Left- and right-leaning outlets are covering this story differently — in which facts to emphasize, which context to include, and how to frame causes and consequences.

Left-leaning (1)

middle_east_eye-0.50

Former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida says he passed a warning from then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to Israeli intelligence weeks before the 7 October attack, accor…

Center (3)

timesofisrael.comua.newsynetnews.com

Right-leaning (2)

jerusalem_post+0.75

Sufian Abu Zaida says he was the figure known as "Coal Eyes" who relayed Yahya Sinwar’s September 2023 warning of a "huge surprise" to an adviser to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed…

jpost.com+0.75

Sources

6 of 6 linked articles