Netanyahu denies Egypt warned him before the Hamas attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday dismissed a report by the American magazine The Atlantic from last Friday, according to which Egypt had warned him about the Hamas attack.

According to the report, the head of Egypt’s intelligence service traveled to Israel a few days before the 7 October 2023 attack to warn that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was preparing to carry out a major operation.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of an attempt to “manipulate” public opinion in his country, a month before parliamentary elections in which he is at risk of losing.

A statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office stresses that “the accusation is false” – it had already been denied at the time, but is now “being recycled to manipulate Israeli public opinion”.

Parliamentary elections in Israel are scheduled to be held exactly one month from now, on 27 October.

According to the report, with less than two weeks left before the attack, Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt’s intelligence service, arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport on a chartered Cessna for a quick trip lasting about an hour, aimed at warning Israeli authorities that the window for preventing a major Hamas attack was “closing”. The American magazine cites sources in Israel, Egypt, other Arab countries, the United States and Europe.

Kamel reportedly asked the Israeli government to make economic concessions to Hamas, a movement linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, to ensure escalation was prevented.

Abbas Kamel is among the most influential intelligence officers in the region and played an important role in mediation efforts after the war broke out.

The Atlantic notes that it is unclear whom Mr. Kamel met. However, a former Israeli government official stressed that it would be unimaginable for Prime Minister Netanyahu not to have been informed about the visit and the content of what the Egyptian intelligence chief told his contacts.

Two days after the attack, Mr. Netanyahu’s office denied that Egypt had warned his government and that there had been any indirect or direct contact between the prime minister and Mr. Kamel.

The report comes after a recent article by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, according to which the United Arab Emirates had also warned Prime Minister Netanyahu.

According to the report, the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed, had told Mr. Netanyahu that the then-leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, was planning an attack. The Israeli prime minister’s office also denied the newspaper’s information and threatened to take the matter to court.