Ex-Palestinian minister says he carried Sinwar message to Israel before Oct. 7

A former Palestinian Authority minister, Sufian Abu Zaida, said on Friday that he acted as a go-between for Israel and Hamas in the period before the October 7, 2023 attack, and that he intends to make public a message the then Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, asked him to deliver to the Israeli side. Haaretz reported that the former senior Fatah official said he would soon disclose both the message and details of the secret contacts he mediated.

Abu Zaida made the statement in a video posted to Facebook, according to The Times of Israel, which said that shortly afterwards the Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar identified him as the source behind an urgent telephone call placed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, ten days before the attack. In that call, according to the same account, bin Zayed warned that Hamas was preparing a major offensive against Israel.

Who Sufian Abu Zaida is

Abu Zaida served as the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoner affairs. The Palestinian Authority is the body established under the Oslo accords that administers parts of the West Bank; Fatah, the movement to which Abu Zaida belongs, is its dominant faction and the rival of Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip after winning Palestinian elections and then ousting Fatah forces there.

In a profile published on Friday, Ynet described Abu Zaida as a Fatah figure regarded as close to Mohammed Dahlan, the exiled former Gaza security chief who now lives in the United Arab Emirates. Ynet said Abu Zaida was once abducted by Hamas, spent time in an Israeli prison, and was involved in the deal that secured the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The claim about the warning

The core of Abu Zaida's account, as reported, is that Sinwar gave him a message describing his intention to bring about an "earthquake." Ynet reported that Abu Zaida said the message was passed to the United Arab Emirates and reached the Emirati leader, who then conveyed it personally to Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post, in its account of the same statement, said Abu Zaida was reluctant to report directly to the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, while at the same time fearing for his life if the information he held became known.

Why this lands in an existing Israeli argument

The claim attaches itself to one of the most contested questions in Israel since the attack: what warnings reached the political and security leadership beforehand, and what was done with them. The Times of Israel noted that Eldar first published the account of the bin Zayed call earlier this month and that it caused a major public storm in Israel.

Sinwar led Hamas in Gaza at the time of the October 7, 2023 assault, in which thousands of gunmen crossed into southern Israel. He later became the movement's overall leader. Dahlan, the figure Ynet links Abu Zaida to, has long operated from the Gulf and has been discussed for years in Israeli and Palestinian commentary as a possible actor in Gaza's future, which is part of why a channel running through the Emirates is treated as plausible by those reporting it.

What the reports do not establish

None of the reports published the text of the message Abu Zaida says Sinwar gave him, beyond the single word "earthquake" as characterised by Ynet. Nor do they say when, where or through which Israeli official the mediation he describes took place, or over what period.

There is no Israeli government, Shin Bet or Prime Minister's Office response in the material, and no confirmation from the United Arab Emirates that such a message was received or relayed. Hamas has not commented in the reports available. Abu Zaida's account of the Emirati channel is described in the reporting as an allegation carried by Eldar and by Abu Zaida himself rather than as something independently established.

The reports also do not say when Abu Zaida intends to publish the fuller account, in what form, or whether any documentation exists to support it. Until he does, the substance rests on his own testimony and on the journalist who identified him.