Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel made a rare unannounced visit to Israel on September 26 2023 carrying an urgent warning that Hamas was preparing a major attack, eleven days before the October 7 assault that killed around 1,200 Israelis.
Details
On September 26 2023, the same day Israel’s leadership had gathered in Jerusalem to mark the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a chartered Cessna linked to Egypt’s intelligence service quietly landed at Ben Gurion Airport and taxied to an isolated area reserved for sensitive diplomatic missions. Abbas Kamel, one of the most influential intelligence officials in the Middle East, was on board.
The aircraft remained on the ground for 67 minutes before returning to Cairo. Vivian Salama, writing for The Atlantic and citing officials from seven countries including Israel, Egypt, the United States and several European nations, first reported the details of the visit. It remains unclear exactly which Israeli officials met with Kamel during that window, and Netanyahu’s office has denied that any such warning was ever received.
What the Message Said
Kamel warned that Hamas appeared to be mobilizing for a major attack and urged Israel to make economic concessions to avert another round of fighting. He did not provide a date, a target or detailed operational intelligence. One former Israeli official later briefed on the visit summarized the message plainly. “If you don’t change course, Gaza is going to blow up in your faces.” The warning was urgent in tone but limited in specifics, enough to raise alarm but not enough to pinpoint what was coming.
Why the Warning Was Ignored
Israel in late 2023 was a country consumed by internal crisis. Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul had driven hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets and opened deep divisions across Israeli society and within the military itself.
Against that backdrop, Israeli leadership had also convinced itself that Hamas had been deterred and that the more pressing Palestinian security threat was in the West Bank. As one former senior US official put it, Israeli leaders were “confident, even cocky, that they had the situation under control.”
Kamel’s warning, lacking a specific date or attack plan, did not cut through that confidence. Economic concessions to Hamas were approved shortly after the visit but no security escalation followed.
Why This Matters
Egypt was not the only country that tried to warn Israel. The UAE’s President Mohamed bin Zayed called Netanyahu after receiving intelligence assessments from Egyptian and Palestinian sources flagging the possibility of an imminent Hamas attack. There are also unconfirmed reports that Saudi Arabia raised similar concerns. What makes Kamel’s visit particularly significant is its level.
Intelligence chiefs do not make unannounced one hour visits to foreign capitals for routine exchanges. As one Egyptian official said, for Kamel to fly to Israel for a single hour meant that President Sisi himself felt the message needed to be delivered in person. Officials from seven countries briefed afterward agreed that the visit alone should have triggered alarm at the highest levels of the Israeli government.
