Egypt's Intelligence Chief Warned Netanyahu Days Before Oct. 7 Attack

Israeli media have reported that the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the days before the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, allegedly warning him that something serious was being prepared in Gaza. The report was published by Ynet, the English-language site of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Nobody has independently verified the account. Neither Cairo nor Netanyahu's office has publicly confirmed it as reported.

The allegation first surfaced shortly after the attack. In October 2023, Israeli media reported that Egypt's intelligence chief at the time, Major General Abbas Kamel, had personally called Netanyahu about ten days before the assault. According to those reports, Kamel warned that Gaza residents were likely to carry out "something unusual, a terrible operation." Netanyahu's office rejected the report as "absolutely fake news" and said no such early message had come from Egypt.

Other accounts from that period point the same way. Michael McCaul, then chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters that Washington knew Egypt had warned Israel three days before the attack, though he said it was unclear at what level the warning was delivered. An Egyptian intelligence official also told the Associated Press that Cairo had repeatedly cautioned Israeli officials that the situation in Gaza was about to explode.

The renewed reporting adds to a long-running dispute inside Israel over who knew what before October 7. Senior security figures have stepped down over the failures, including former military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva and former army chief of staff Herzi Halevi. Netanyahu has consistently rejected claims that he personally received prior warnings.

The claims involve one of the two Arab states at the centre of efforts to end the war. Since October 2023, Egypt and Qatar, alongside the United States, have mediated between Israel and Hamas. Their efforts produced the November 2023 humanitarian truce and the January 2025 ceasefire and prisoner-exchange agreement. Cairo has not commented on the latest Israeli report.