"Egypt Also Directly Warned Netanyahu of Hamas Surprise Attack"

Amid continuing revelations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored intelligence regarding the October 7, 2023, surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, reports have emerged that Egyptian intelligence directly provided related information and warnings to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the 27th (local time) that Abbas Kamel, head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service (GIS), directly called Prime Minister Netanyahu days before the Hamas surprise attack to warn him of the possibility of a Hamas assault.

The phone call at the time took place shortly after Egypt's two previous warnings had been ignored by the Israeli side.

Director Kamel visited Israel directly in late September of the same year and expressed concern to senior officials, stating, "The situation in the Gaza Strip is very serious and could explode on everyone at any time."

However, Israeli officials dismissed this, saying "the situation is under control," prompting Director Kamel to directly call Prime Minister Netanyahu's office in early October, according to the newspaper.

It is known that warnings from the Egyptian side continued until two days before the surprise attack.

Previously, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had a 45-minute phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu to warn him of the threat from Hamas.

Regarding this, a UAE source confirmed to The Times of Israel that the phone call actually took place.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Egyptian authorities had been warning of instability in the Gaza Strip since June 2023 and advising Israel to resume prisoner exchange negotiations.

When those negotiations broke down at the time, Gaza Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar threatened that "an earthquake will happen," and this message was reportedly conveyed through mediators to Israeli security authorities and the UAE side.

Despite successive warnings from Arab allies, Israel reportedly refrained from taking hardline responses, such as assassinating the Hamas leadership, out of concern that it would negatively impact normalization negotiations with Saudi Arabia that were underway behind the scenes at the time.

However, it is reported that the warnings from Egypt and UAE did not include specific timing or scale of the attack.

Regarding the successive exposé-style reports, Prime Minister Netanyahu has strongly denied ever receiving any warnings about an imminent threat from Egypt or the UAE.

He has shifted the blame for the security failure onto the military and intelligence agencies, claiming that if reports had been made to him when abnormal signs were detected in the early hours of that day, immediate action would have prevented the massacre.

On the other hand, Yoav Gallant, who was Israel's defense minister at the time, appeared on Army Radio the previous day and countered, "I only learned of the warnings from the UAE and Egypt through recent media reports," adding that if senior security officials had shared that information, they might have made a different decision.

Facing pressure ahead of the general election on October 27, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been refusing to form the "State Commission of Inquiry," Israel's highest investigative body concerning the October 7 disaster.

His stance is that an independent committee appointed by the Supreme Court could be biased against the current government, and that the political sphere should independently determine its authority and scope to form an investigative committee.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu secretly visited Abu Dhabi in the UAE the previous day and met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the source of the recent revelations.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.