28 September Mossad account puts UAE pharmacy continuity checks back on the board

Eyal Tsir Cohen, former head of the Mossad’s international diplomacy department, told Army Radio on 28 September 2026 that he did not recall warnings from Egypt or the UAE before the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, according to reports carried by JBizNews and Israel National News.

The immediate audience in UAE healthcare is the COO, the pharmacy director and the insurer operations head. The story is about intelligence flow, but the UAE health impact is operational. A regional security shock can move patients, disrupt medicines, change call volumes and expose weak escalation routes inside licensed facilities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates.

What was reported

Cohen, who led the Mossad’s Tevel department in September and October 2023, said he did not remember intelligence reports about warnings from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, former Fatah official Sufian Abu Zaida, or a visit by former Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel. The reports concern competing accounts of whether Israel received regional warnings before 7 October 2023.

"I do not recall any reports regarding a warning from MBZ." Eyal Tsir Cohen, former Mossad official, as reported by JBizNews on 28 September 2026.

For UAE healthcare operators, the factual question is narrower than the political dispute. The check is whether a clinic, hospital pharmacy, third-party administrator or insurer can move from external security news to an internal readiness decision within the same working day. Dubai Health Authority (DHA) regulates Dubai providers. Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH) regulates Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) regulates much of the northern emirates, while the Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE) has taken selected pharmaceutical services, including medicine price lists and licensed pharmaceutical facility services, from MOHAP.

Why pharmacies and insurers should care

DHA’s outpatient standard, issued on 19 November 2024 and effective from 19 January 2025, requires licensed outpatient facilities to keep emergency medicines accessible and replace them when used, damaged or expired. It also requires drug incidents and medication errors to be reported to DHA Health Regulation Sector by email within 48 hours. That is a concrete operating rule, separate from the politics of the Israel-Gaza file.

Abu Dhabi’s strategic medical stockpile standard says private hospitals, pharmaceutical agents, local medication plants and major pharmacy groups should support the strategic stockpile and provide technical and logistics support in emergencies, crises and disasters. MOHAP’s strategic stockpile work refers to Cabinet Resolution No. 39 of 2015, which covers medicines and medical supplies for exceptional situations.

• Dubai clinics should check emergency medicine expiry dates, substitution pathways and after-hours pharmacy contacts under DHA rules.
• Abu Dhabi providers should review DOH stockpile and logistics obligations with pharmacy suppliers, especially for chronic disease medicines.
• Northern emirates operators should confirm MOHAP and EDE requirements for licensed pharmaceutical facilities before changing suppliers.
• Insurers such as Daman, Thiqa and Sukoon should verify whether prior authorisation, network access and claims support can handle a short disruption in one emirate.

The patient-facing risk is simple. A person on insulin, anticoagulants, epilepsy medicines, oncology therapy or transplant medicines may need continuity for days, not hours. UAE providers should avoid publishing blanket price claims for replacement medicines because prices depend on product registration, insurer network, formulary rules and co-pay. The practical route is to check the insurer portal, the pharmacy benefit desk and the EDE or regulator-linked medicine price source before giving a patient an AED estimate.

What operators should do this week

By 2 October 2026, UAE clinics and pharmacy chains should run a short continuity check against four items: current emergency medicine stock, supplier escalation contacts, insurer approval rules and patient communication scripts. The task fits a COO or pharmacy director because it can be completed without a board meeting or a new system purchase.

CIOs have a narrower job. They should confirm that pharmacy inventory, e-prescribing, prior authorisation and call-centre systems carry the same drug names, pack sizes and insurer identifiers. A mismatch between a clinic system and a pharmacy system can delay a refill even when the medicine is physically available.

Medical directors should review which high-risk patients need written refill instructions before travel or regional disruption. CFOs should ask whether emergency dispensing creates unreimbursed inventory, denied claims or write-offs. Insurers should publish clear member instructions for urgent refill requests by emirate, because Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates do not sit under one health regulator.

For licensed pharmacy options, readers can use the UAE Open Healthcare Directory, which lists more than 12,390 licensed healthcare providers, including DHA-licensed pharmacies in Dubai and MOHAP-licensed pharmacies in Sharjah.