Play store
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend for talks with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as tensions continue to rise across the Middle East.
Two people briefed on the visit said Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed met for about an hour on Sunday. Israel’s Channel 12 television was the first to report the meeting.
One source said Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to reject a recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz alleging that the Emirati leader had warned him of a possible Hamas attack shortly before the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel.
Netanyahu’s office had previously denied the Haaretz report and did not immediately comment on the meeting. The UAE Foreign Ministry also declined to comment, but said it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares relevant intelligence.
The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency later confirmed Netanyahu’s visit, saying the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen cooperation.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service meanwhile filed a complaint with the country’s chief military censor against Channel 12, alleging that the report breached censorship rules and endangered the prime minister, military personnel and operations.
Elsewhere, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday that the European Union is seeking observer status in a Saudi-led maritime security coalition aimed at protecting the kingdom’s energy exports.
Kallas also said the EU wants to expand its naval mission in the Red Sea, ASPIDES, to help escort commercial vessels through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and protect shipping from attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranian forces for what he described as preventing “enemy forces” from freely operating in the Strait of Hormuz. He said Iran’s adversaries no longer approach the strategic waterway from closer than the Arabian Sea.
In Yemen, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said a strike by Saudi-backed forces on a residence in Taiz province killed three women and an elderly man and injured three others. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
The World Health Organization said it recorded 164 deaths and 645 injuries in Yemen between Sept. 19 and 26. Since Aug. 6, the conflict has killed 838 people and injured 3,643, while more than 180,000 people have been displaced.
In Gaza, an Israeli strike on a rooftop in Gaza City killed a woman and injured her husband and another person, according to officials at Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military said it was aware of the incident and was investigating.
A separate Israeli strike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp critically injured one person, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The Israeli military said it had targeted a “military operative.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago, with women and children accounting for about half of the deaths.
Meanwhile, Iran and the UAE renewed a long-running dispute over the ownership of three Gulf islands — Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb — during the closing days of the UN General Assembly.
The islands were seized by Iran in 1971 from territory that later became part of the UAE and lie near the Strait of Hormuz. UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar accused Iran of occupying the islands, while Nasser Asadi of Iran’s UN mission rejected the criticism and said Tehran maintains full sovereignty over them.
