"Gaza will explode in your faces": Abbas Kamel's warning to Israel a week before Hamas's attack

Tel Aviv - Afaq News - Exactly three years ago, on September 26, 2023, a plane belonging to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service landed at Ben Gurion Airport, carrying the then head of the agency, Abbas Kamel.

According to an extensive investigation published by The Atlantic magazine last Friday evening, Kamel's visit to Israel lasted only 67 minutes, as he arrived on an urgent and sensitive mission to convey a warning about Hamas's movements, which included organizing and recruiting elements in preparation for a major attack from the Gaza Strip.

The investigation reveals new details about the intelligence failure that preceded the October 7 attack, as the published information indicates that the head of Egyptian intelligence arrived in Israel just 11 days before the Hamas attack.

According to the report, which is based on testimonies from Israeli, Egyptian, Arab, American, and European officials who were briefed on the details of the visit, Kamel's message was clear and detailed: 'If you do not change your course, Gaza will explode in your faces. The opportunity to prevent the disaster is fading.'

Informed sources about the details of the conversation with Kamel stated that he did not specify an expected date for the attack or specific details about how it would be carried out, and that he offered to provide financial assistance to the movement to calm the situation. However, the sources confirmed that 'the message lies in the sender,' and that Kamel's mere arrival was supposed to raise concerns in Israel.

The investigation quoted an Egyptian source as saying: "The arrival of Kamel in Israel means that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told him: It is better for you to go and tell them yourself."

Even after Kamel's visit, Egypt continued its efforts to warn Israel about what would happen. American, Egyptian, and Israeli sources confirmed that the Egyptians sent warnings two days before the attack.

The historical paradox is strikingly evident, especially on the very day Kamel arrived, as heads of state gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October War. Just two hours after Kamel landed at Ben Gurion Airport, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage, describing the surprise attack in 1973 as a warning against underestimating the enemy and ignoring intelligence signals, and declared: "We do not underestimate any threat."

The investigation is being published alongside a report by The New York Times stating that Netanyahu did not mention the warning conversation with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed in a security discussion held on October 1, days before the Hamas attack, and prevented a preemptive strike on Gaza to maintain calm.

The report confirms what Haaretz published, that Netanyahu received a clear warning from the President of the United Arab Emirates about a "major step" that Sinwar was planning against Israel, days before the October 7 attack, but he did not inform the heads of the security establishment.

The Times claimed that Bin Zayed, for his part, mentioned his phone call with Netanyahu a few months later in a conversation with then-CIA Director William Burns. Bin Zayed told Burns in a phone call that he spoke with Netanyahu about the imminent danger of violence in the West Bank or Gaza Strip from Hamas.