Benjamin Netanyahu denied reports that Egypt and the UAE warned him before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, calling them false and alleging Arab states backed them to topple his government; he said he had not met or spoken with Abbas Kamel beforehand.
The denials conflict with reports cited in the article. The Atlantic reported that Kamel, then Egypt’s intelligence chief, met Netanyahu 11 days before Oct. 7 to warn him of an attack; The Wall Street Journal reported a further warning in a call days before. Haaretz reported that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed warned Netanyahu by phone in September 2023, but five former Israeli officials said that warning did not reach Israel’s security establishment.
Netanyahu also claimed that Ronen Bar, then head of the Shin Bet, knew of a threat but did not alert him or the appropriate forces. He accused left-wing media of trying to pin Israel’s intelligence failures entirely on him.
