JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday evening that Egypt’s then-intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, visited Israel just 11 days before Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, but firmly denied meeting or speaking with him during the visit.

Speaking on Channel 14’s The Patriots program, Netanyahu addressed reports that Kamel had made a secret trip to Israel on September 26, 2023, allegedly to deliver an urgent warning about Hamas’s preparations for a major attack.

Netanyahu confirmed that Kamel had been in Israel but insisted that he had no contact with him. “He did not meet with me because I was attending a memorial ceremony for IDF soldiers at the time,” Netanyahu said. “The exact timing is known. Therefore, it was a lie from the outset. He neither met nor spoke with me.”

The prime minister also questioned who had met the Egyptian intelligence chief during the visit, saying he had repeatedly sought answers from Israeli security and law enforcement authorities.

“I am the prime minister of Israel. The head of Egyptian intelligence was here, and I want to know whom he met,” Netanyahu said. “I don’t know whom he met. I am trying to find out.”

He suggested that whoever had met Kamel was attempting to shift responsibility onto him, although he offered no evidence identifying the individual or establishing such an effort.

The remarks follow a report in The Atlantic alleging that Kamel had traveled to Israel shortly before the Hamas attack to warn that the terrorist organization was preparing a significant operation and that time was running out to prevent a major escalation.

According to The Atlantic investigation by journalist Vivian Salama, a chartered Cessna aircraft linked to Egyptian intelligence landed at Ben Gurion Airport on September 26, 2023, approximately two hours before Netanyahu addressed a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

The aircraft reportedly parked in a restricted area used for sensitive diplomatic and security missions and remained in Israel for just 67 minutes before returning to Cairo.
Salama said she verified Kamel’s presence through flight records and interviews with officials from several countries, including Israel, Egypt and the United States.

The investigation claimed that Kamel warned senior Israeli security officials that Hamas appeared to be mobilizing for an unprecedented attack. Although the warning reportedly did not identify a specific date or operational plan, the Egyptian intelligence chief urged Israel to consider economic concessions to Gaza to avert an escalation.
The report also indicated that Egypt had delivered additional warnings through other channels, including written communications, in the weeks preceding October 7.

Tuesday’s acknowledgment establishes that Kamel did visit Israel, while leaving unresolved who received his warning, whether its contents were passed to Netanyahu, and what action Israeli authorities took in response.

The controversy has renewed scrutiny of the intelligence and political failures preceding October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

The central unanswered question is no longer whether Egypt’s intelligence chief was in Israel shortly before the massacre, but what happened to the warning he reportedly delivered and whether it reached the country’s highest political and security leadership.