As Israeli Knesset elections draw nearer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaving no opportunity to absolve himself of responsibility for the intelligence failure surrounding the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. In an interview with Channel 14 on October 13, 2026, Netanyahu acknowledged, contrary to his earlier statement, that Abbas Kamel had indeed arrived in Israel. However, he insisted that the Egyptian intelligence chief “did not meet with me because I was at a memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers.”
According to reports, Egypt’s then intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, was aboard the Egyptian aircraft that landed in Israel on September 26, 2023—just 11 days before the October 7 Hamas attack—to warn those he met about the major attack being planned by Hamas. But one by one, Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Israeli security officials denied any involvement in a meeting with anyone who arrived at Ben Gurion Airport aboard an Egyptian aircraft on September 26, 2023. The airport’s digital records confirm the plane’s arrival.
As reported by Itamar Eichner in Ynet Global, then-Mossad chief David Barnea and then-Shin Bet director Ronen Bar are said to have denied meeting Kamel. Both said they believed the reports of the visit were fake, arguing that it would have been unlikely for Kamel to visit Israel without meeting them. The Mossad is reported to have said that no representative of the agency had met Kamel. Ghassan Alian, who was in charge of coordinating government activities in Gaza, and former National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi similarly denied meeting the Egyptian intelligence chief that day. Israel’s embassy in Egypt, which is supposed to maintain constant contact with the intelligence chief, was excluded from the meeting.
Surprisingly, two days after the October 7 massacre, Ynet journalist Smadar Perry, following an Associated Press report, reported that Kamel had contacted the Israeli Prime Minister’s office and conveyed a message warning of “something unusual, a massive operation” expected to originate from Gaza. The Prime Minister’s office denied the report at the time. As things stand now, it has made no urgent effort over the past three years to establish whether any message had been conveyed by Egyptian intelligence, even if not directly to Netanyahu. Second, according to Netanyahu’s version of events, he did not meet the Egyptian intelligence chief that day because he was attending a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War at Mount Herzl. But The Atlantic reported that the ceremony took place about two hours after Kamel’s arrival.
A former Israeli official is said to have raised doubt by saying that it is unbelievable that Abbas Kamel would have come to Israel to meet with anyone below the level of Prime Minister. Netanyahu has met him before and also met his successor, Hassan Rashad, last year. He further asserted:
“In any case, it is clear that when the Egyptian intelligence chief arrives—a minister and President el-Sisi’s No. 2—he meets at the very least with the Prime Minister and also with the President. It is unlikely that Abbas Kamel did not meet the Prime Minister. You can’t hide something like that.”
The BBC reported on October 12, 2023, that Mr. Michael McCaul, a US congressional panel chairman, had also confirmed the Egyptian warning of a Hamas attack to Israel. Netanyahu is said to have described the report as “absolutely false.” A report from a UAE source casts suspicion on the action taken by the Prime Minister. According to a report, Avi Gil, Netanyahu’s military secretary during the October 7, 2023, attack, in a bombshell interview with Channel 12, is reported to have said that he did not know about either the Egyptian or the Emirati warnings.
Now, regarding the implications of such intelligence inputs and the denials, the stakes for Netanyahu are very high. In recent weeks, this debate has become a central animating force. Claims regarding the leadership’s negligence have been supercharged by a string of reports in Israeli and foreign outlets, with opposition parties making startling allegations that Netanyahu ignored multiple warnings from Arab government sources about an impending attack from Hamas. Even if the warnings were fictional or exaggerated, the buck stops with Netanyahu. He was in office for almost all the periods in which Hamas was building its resources. There are a range of measures he could have taken to prevent the attack by vigorously investigating the inputs instead of dismissing them as baseless. If the reports of warnings were true, they would mean that he had all the necessary information and failed to pass it on to concerned security officials. Some also raise the more disturbing question of his motivation for not taking action. Now Israeli voters will decide whether this dereliction of duty means Netanyahu and his party should be defeated in the October election.
Netanyahu’s regime represents a dehumanizing Zionism, settler colonialism, and the cruellest capitalist imperialism. The vertical division of society at home and the reign of genocide in Gaza are now undermining his electoral prospects. In the face of powerlessness and pessimism, people would find hope and optimism in defeating the Likud party and its leader, Netanyahu, to save Israel from the vortex of wars. The war mongering Zionist regime is a threat to the existence of Israel and peaceful coexistence of different religious groups and diverse communities in the region. The defeat of Zionist regime led by Netanyahu is the first step to determine the future of Israel and ensure peace in the region
