Eurasia Press & News
Egypt warned Israel of a possible major Hamas attack, the latest report suggesting a security failure amid pressure on Netanyahu to face an independent inquiry
Egypt’s then-intelligence chief travelled to Israel 11 days before Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack and warned that the group appeared to be preparing a major assault, according to an investigation by The Atlantic.
The report comes amid intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow an independent inquiry into Israel’s failures ahead of the attack, as the country approaches an election next month.
Abbas Kamel arrived in Israel on 26 September 2023 aboard a plane linked to Egyptian intelligence, The Atlantic reported on Friday, citing an Israeli airport flight log and officials from Israel, Egypt and other countries who were briefed on the visit after the attack. The plane spent 67 minutes on the ground before returning to Cairo.
Kamel warned that Hamas appeared to be mobilising for a major attack and that time was running out to avert a disaster, the magazine reported. A former Israeli official who was briefed on the visit said the message was: “If you don’t change course, Gaza is going to blow up in your faces”.
He urged Israeli officials to offer economic concessions to ease tensions in Gaza, but did not provide a date, target or details of the assault that followed. It remains unclear whom he met in Israel or how his warning was handled.
Netanyahu’s office denied shortly after 7 October that the prime minister had received warnings from Egypt, directly or indirectly. Tzachi Hanegbi, who headed Israel’s National Security Council at the time, also denied to The Atlantic this week that Kamel had visited or that Egypt had issued a warning.
The investigation describes further warnings as the crisis in Gaza deepened. Egypt continued to raise concerns until two days before the attack, according to officials cited by The Atlantic, although those messages, too, lacked a date or method.
The magazine also reported that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed called Netanyahu to warn of a possible attack. Netanyahu has denied receiving such a warning from the Emirati leader.
Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken captive on 7 October, with Israel being accused of firing indiscriminately at Palestinian fighters and Israelis on the day. Israel’s ensuing genocidal war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, and left much of the besieged enclave in ruins.
The question of what Israel’s leaders knew beforehand has become a central issue ahead of the 27 October election, the country’s first since the attack.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief and one of Netanyahu’s leading challengers, has made a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding 7 October a campaign priority.
Netanyahu has resisted that kind of independent investigation and instead sought a politically appointed commission, a proposal his rivals oppose.
