One by one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the former head of the National Security Council and senior Israeli security officials all denied Wednesday any involvement in a meeting with whoever arrived at Ben Gurion Airport aboard an Egyptian aircraft on September 26, 2023, just 11 days before the October 7 massacre. According to reports, Egypt's then-intelligence chief Abbas Kamel was the man on the plane and he came to warn those he met of "a major attack being planned by Hamas."
In an interview with Channel 14 on Tuesday night, Netanyahu acknowledged, contrary to his previous statements, that Kamel had indeed arrived in Israel. However, he insisted that the Egyptian intelligence chief "did not meet with me because I was at a memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers."
Former Mossad chief David Barnea and former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar also said they had not met with Kamel. Both said they believed reports of the visit were fake news, arguing that it would have been unlikely for Kamel to visit Israel without meeting them.
The Mossad said no representative of the agency had met with Kamel.
Ghassan Alian, who was then coordinator of government activities in the territories and was heavily involved in efforts to maintain calm in Gaza, also denied meeting Kamel that day. Former National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi similarly said he had not met with the Egyptian official.
Israel's embassy in Egypt, another body that maintains contact with the Egyptian intelligence chief, was excluded from the meeting.
Two days after the October 7 massacre, Ynet journalist Smadar Perry reported, following an Associated Press report about an Egyptian warning, that Kamel had contacted the Prime Minister's Office and conveyed a message warning of "something unusual, a massive operation" expected to originate from Gaza.
The Prime Minister's Office denied the report at the time. Yet, at least as things appear now, it made no urgent effort over the following three years to establish whether any messages had indeed been conveyed by the Egyptian side, even if not directly to Netanyahu.
From the ceremony for the Yom Kippur War on Sept. 26, 2023
(Photo: Defense Department)
As for Netanyahu's claim that he could not have met whoever arrived on the aircraft because he was attending a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War at Mount Herzl, The Atlantic reported that the ceremony took place about two hours after Kamel's arrival.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana suggested Wednesday morning that "it was one of the heads of the security establishment." However, the IDF chief of staff, Mossad director, Shin Bet chief and police commissioner were all seated alongside Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog at the ceremony.
'Reinforcing the deep state narrative'
A former senior Israeli official commenting on the reports Wednesday said: "It is unlikely that Abbas Kamel would come to Israel to meet with anyone below the level of prime minister. Netanyahu has met him before, contrary to what he said on Channel 14. He also met his successor, Hassan Rashad, last year.
"In any case, it is clear that when the Egyptian intelligence chief arrives, a minister and President el-Sissi's No. 2, he meets at the very least with the prime minister and also with the president. It is unlikely that Abbas Kamel did not meet the prime minister. You cannot hide something like that."
The former official continued: "When a senior foreign official arrives, his aircraft enters a special route managed by the Israel Airports Authority. There are cameras and digital location records. Bibi is manipulating things here and laying the groundwork for his continued portrayal of himself as a victim: 'Why wasn't I informed?'
"Netanyahu is reinforcing the deep state narrative. But it is not difficult to check these things. The prime minister is claiming there was a breach of trust. He says a plane arrived. For years, I didn't care. Now I'm saying it happened.
"So the attorney general can order all the digital evidence to be seized, examine the computer records and see who was in a restricted area that day. A plane lands, and its crew is supposed to be registered. Did anyone get off the plane? Did anyone come to meet them?"
Netanyahu's son, Yair Netanyahu, responded with a post on X.
"To all the 'left-wing journalists,' stop your propaganda already! My father was referring to the fact that a prime minister does not meet the intelligence chief of another country 'alone,' as the blood libel against him claimed.
"The meeting they showed from 2021 with the Egyptian intelligence chief also included his Israeli counterparts, such as the head of the National Security Council, Israel's intelligence minister and others.
"During the Egyptian intelligence chief's one-hour visit to Ben Gurion Airport in 2023, 11 days before the massacre, my father was at a ceremony commemorating the Yom Kippur War."
Yair Netanyahu concluded: "Now the question is: Who did meet with the Egyptian intelligence chief at the time? And why has this been concealed from the prime minister and the public for three years? Why are they still refusing the prime minister's request to reveal who met the Egyptian intelligence chief in Israel?"
'We do not dismiss any threat'
Last month, The Atlantic reported that Kamel had arrived in Israel for an exceptionally brief visit on September 26, 2023, during which he "warned that Hamas was preparing a major attack and urged Israel to introduce economic relief measures to prevent escalation."
According to the magazine's investigation, a chartered aircraft linked to Egyptian intelligence services landed at Ben Gurion Airport and remained in Israel for just 67 minutes before departing for Cairo.
A former Israeli official who spoke to the magazine said the Egyptian intelligence chief's decision to make such a short and unusual visit should itself have conveyed the urgency of the warning.
"The messenger was the message," the official said.
Approximately two hours after the Egyptian aircraft landed, Netanyahu attended a ceremony in Jerusalem marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. "As a central lesson from that war, we do not dismiss any threat," Netanyahu said at the time.
The Wall Street Journal separately reported that Kamel called Netanyahu in early October 2023 to warn him of an impending attack from the Gaza Strip, after two earlier Egyptian warnings had gone unheeded.
"Kamel began to grow concerned," the newspaper reported, lending further support to Smadar Perry's reporting in Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth in the days following the massacre about an Egyptian warning.
Netanyahu, however, continues to deny that he spoke with Kamel.