Egyptian intelligence warned Israel's Netanyahu 3 times before Hamas' Oct 7 attack, new reports claim

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by Egyptian intelligence about a potential move by Hamas at least three times before the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

The WSJ report follows a series of earlier reports also claiming that Prime Minister Netanyahu received prior warnings. 

According to the Journal, Abbas Kamel, the head of Egyptian intelligence, had previously attempted to deliver warnings to the Israeli government, which had apparently gone unheeded. 

Kamel made one final attempt to warn Netanyahu in early October, the Journal reports, citing “officials in an Arab government.” 

A similar story appeared in The Atlantic on Friday. That story claimed Kamel arrived in a chartered Cessna jet linked to Egypt’s intelligence service on Sept. 26, 2023, while Netanyahu was attending a memorial for the 1973 Yom Kippur War. 

During that memorial ceremony, Netanyahu said, “We must not make light of the threats before us.” 

Citing a “former Israeli official later briefed on the visit,” Kamel told the Israeli leader, “If you don’t change course, Gaza is going to blow up in your faces.” 

The arrival of the plane has been confirmed by an Israeli airport authority flight log and by independent flight-tracking applications, The Atlantic claims. 

Netanyahu has previously denied being warned by Kamel, despite Egyptian and American officials stating that a warning did occur. 

His office released a statement denying the report in The Atlantic, saying "the allegation is false. It was denied at the time and is being recycled to manipulate the Israeli public."

Prime Minister Netanyahu also denied receiving a phone call from United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed in late September 2023.

The UAE government refused to comment on the story; however, UAE news site The National later reported that an anonymous government official denied the phone call ever took place. 

The Prime Minister’s Office affirmed that direct calls between Netanyahu and bin Zayed are conducted through an Emirati representative who arrives at the Prime Minister’s Office with an encrypted communications device, but noted that such visits are documented.

The PMO record shows no such conversation in the time period claimed by the Haaretz report. 

Both Haaretz and the New York Times have stood by their reporting, claiming such a call did take place. Haaretz has done so despite threats by Netanyahu to sue the paper and the two authors of the report. 

Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was replaced by Netanyahu in 2024, following several incidents in which he publicly opposed the prime minister, recently told Army Radio that he was not aware of any such warnings to Netanyahu. 

Gallant said he only recently became aware of the alleged warnings through the media. 

“This is the first time I'm hearing about these warnings - and it is through the media,” he told Army Radio. “Assuming it's true, when a prime minister receives a warning from the leader of another country, it is not his political asset; it is a security asset belonging to the security establishment.” 

Gallant noted that Netanyahu had previously withheld information regarding important conversations from officials, including himself. 

“During the war, I learned many times about important conversations Netanyahu held with the Americans on the most sensitive issues, such as hostages and ammunition, only after the Americans called me and tried to verify what had been said in those conversations,” Gallant told Army Radio. 

Gallant confirmed that the Shin Bet security agency did receive a warning that Hamas would “cause a tremor in the prisons.” 

That warning was interpreted in light of ongoing negotiations with Hamas, in which the group was attempting to secure the release of several Hamas terrorists from Israeli prisons, as part of a series of concessions meant to “buy calm.” 

It was specifically related by the Shin Bet and military intelligence to the case of kidnapped researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. 

“Through the channel involving the Shin Bet, we received a message that came from Hamas saying that Sinwar would shake the prisons - and the assessment of the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Directorate was that it was connected to the kidnapping of Elizabeth Tsurkov,” Gallant told Army Radio. 

Gallant’s testimony regarding the warning appears to support previous reports, noting that the warnings regarding Hamas were not explicit alerts about an attack, and provided almost no details to help Israeli security agencies understand the nature of the threat. 

His testimony also accords with that of former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida, who told the Egyptian Al-Ghad TV that he conveyed a direct message to the Israelis from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. 

Abu Zaida showed Al-Ghad a handwritten note that he said Sinwar dictated “word for word” on Sept. 14, 2023. 

The note reads, “Before the end of September, we will put the cards on the table. There will be an earthquake regarding the negotiations, and they [Israeli government] should prepare to empty the prisons.” 

Abu Zaida’s account corroborates Shin Bet officials' claim that several warning signs were misinterpreted ahead of Oct. 7. 

The publication of such reports appears to be increasing ahead of the Oct. 27 elections, even as opposition politicians attempt to pin part of the blame for the Hamas massacres on the coalition government in power at the time. 

Netanyahu’s political opponents note that he has resisted establishing a state commission of inquiry to investigate the massacre, as was established following the Yom Kippur War. 

Netanyahu claims that such a commission would be biased against him. However, polls show that the majority of Israelis, including some coalition supporters, support such an inquiry. Instead, the coalition government has proposed an inquiry under its own jurisdiction.