Egypt warned Netanyahu of attack days before Oct. 7, after two previous warnings — report

Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days before the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack to warn him that the terror group, then the Gaza Strip’s de facto government, could be poised to attack, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The call followed two earlier Egyptian warnings, the second of which was delivered in person by Kamel, who flew to Israel in late September and met with Israeli officials, the report said, corroborating a Friday article in The Atlantic.

During that visit, Kamel warned that “the situation in Gaza was dire and could blow up in everyone’s faces,” in the words of the Journal report, which cited unnamed officials in an unidentified Arab government.

But Israeli officials dismissed the warnings, telling Kamel the situation was under control. This prompted the October call to Netanyahu’s office, the Journal reported, adding that Cairo continued to issue warnings up to two days before the attack.

The latest article came just two weeks after a bombshell report in the Haaretz newspaper that said United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed had called Netanyahu personally in late September to warn him of an impending Hamas threat, and that the two had spoken for some 45 minutes.

None of the warnings contained specifics regarding the timing or magnitude of the planned assault.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that he received any warnings, from the UAE or from Egypt, about an impending threat from Hamas. He has regularly blamed Israeli security officials for the failure of October 7, and asserted that if he had been woken in the early hours of that day, when security chiefs discussed concerning signs coming from Gaza, he would have ordered swift action and prevented the massacre.

An Emirati source has confirmed to The Times of Israel that the warning call from bin Zayed did take place.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment, nor did the foreign ministries of Egypt or the United Arab Emirates.

According to the Journal, Egyptian officials had first warned Israel in June 2023 about the general volatility of the situation with Gaza, advising the Jewish state to resume negotiations with Hamas for a hostage-prisoner deal. Before October 7 of that year, when 251 hostages were taken from Israel, the terror group had been holding two Israeli citizens who had entered Gaza of their own accord and the remains of two IDF soldiers.

The breakdown in those negotiations was what led Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza, to threaten an “earthquake.” Sufian Abu Zaida, an intermediary in the talks, has confirmed he relayed the threat to Israeli security officials, as reported by Haaretz. He reportedly also informed Abu Dhabi, leading to bin Zayed’s call to Netanyahu.

The September warnings from Arab allies came amid riots on the Gaza border. Israel sought to quell the riots with concessions to the Strip’s Hamas government, including more permits for day laborers to enter Israel. After the concessions, the border calmed down.

The border riots erupted amid backchannel Israeli negotiations with Saudi Arabia over a potential normalization deal. Amid the warnings, Netanyahu pushed back against security officials who called for assassinating Hamas leaders as a deterrent, reportedly because he was concerned it would jeopardize the talks with Riyadh.

Yoav Gallant, who was defense minister at the time of the attack, told Army Radio on Sunday that he had only learned of the Emirati and Egyptian warnings from the recent media reports, and said that if senior security officials had been privy to the information, they might have made different decisions.

Netanyahu, who is seeking to retain the premiership after the October 27 election, has refused to establish a state commission of inquiry – Israel’s highest investigative authority – into the October 7 disaster, arguing that an independent panel appointed by the Supreme Court would be biased against the government. He has argued instead for a panel appointed by lawmakers, with its mandate and scope set by politicians.