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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to Abu Dhabi on Sunday for a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, according to Israeli broadcaster N12, which said the visit lasted most of the day and appeared to consist largely of a one-on-one conversation between the two leaders.
Netanyahu departed Ben Gurion Airport shortly after noon aboard a private executive jet identified by flight-tracking data as the same aircraft he used during a visit to the UAE amid the war with Iran, referred to in Israel as "Lion's Roar."
He landed in Abu Dhabi at 3:10 p.m. local time, spent roughly four hours in the country, and departed on the return flight at 7:10 p.m., with the plane expected to land back in Israel later Sunday evening.
N12's Yaron Avraham and Barak Ravid, who first reported the trip, said Netanyahu's delegation traveled in several private planes.
Two sources confirmed to the broadcaster that the prime minister flew to Abu Dhabi to meet bin Zayed. The Prime Minister's Office declined to provide further details about the meeting.
The trip took place about a month before Israel's election campaign and just two days after Netanyahu returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he had delivered an address. N12 described the Abu Dhabi visit as secret, noting it was not publicly announced in advance.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of controversy over reports of a warning call between the two leaders before the October 7 attacks. Earlier this month, the newspaper Haaretz reported that bin Zayed had called Netanyahu ahead of the assault to warn him that Hamas's Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a major move against Israel.
According to reporting by Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, bin Zayed urged Netanyahu to act on the warning, but the prime minister responded with relative calm to the information conveyed to him. The two leaders spoke for 45 minutes, according to that report.
The Emirati leader reportedly said he feared the anticipated attack would not only cause bloodshed but could destabilize the wider region and damage the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreements that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the UAE.
No Emirati official has publicly denied that the call took place, and other sources have confirmed it occurred, N12 said.
Sunday's visit is not the first time a Netanyahu trip to the UAE has generated attention. In May, the Prime Minister's Office disclosed a secret visit Netanyahu made to the Emirates during the Iran war, saying at the time that the trip "led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates." N12 reported that the earlier disclosure, which came against the UAE's wishes, had created tension with Abu Dhabi.
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