In recent months, Israel Hayom held in-depth conversations and meetings with numerous senior sources who revealed new and troubling information focused on the two weeks preceding the disaster. It should be noted that these sources took considerable personal risk in agreeing to speak.
On the night between Friday and Saturday morning, Oct. 7, 2023, as the skies over communities near the Gaza border filled with thousands of rockets and terrorists infiltrated Israel, the country’s vaunted intelligence “concept” collapsed. But the real story emerging from months of conversations begins much earlier.
The October 7 Massacre. Photo: AFP AFP
The testimony obtained by Israel Hayom, some of it highly classified and touching the most sensitive nerves of Israel’s security and diplomatic systems, indicates that the warning signs were not merely on the wall but were shouted behind closed doors at the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council two weeks before the catastrophe.
The information presented here was received in a meeting in central Israel with a senior Egyptian source. According to him, two weeks before Oct. 7 an Egyptian delegation arrived at the Foreign Ministry to meet with their Israeli diplomatic counterparts and warn that “the situation in Gaza is explosive.”
“We said everything could blow up,” the senior Egyptian source told us. “We told our Israeli counterparts that the situation in Gaza and the West Bank was extremely volatile and could lead to escalation.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Egypt warned Israel. Photo: AFP
A “very sensitive” situation
Two weeks earlier, Israel was largely consumed by internal turmoil over judicial reform and by debates over gender-separated prayer in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square.
Attention was diverted away from security matters. The senior Egyptian source added: “In Israel they told us everything was under control and that there would soon be an arrangement.” There was indeed an arrangement, but on Oct. 7 it collapsed and disaster struck.
To corroborate the information, we approached several sources in the Foreign Ministry who dealt with Egypt. They could not specify the exact date of the meeting but confirmed to Israel Hayom that messages had arrived from Egypt before Oct. 7 warning that the situation with the Palestinians was very sensitive and could explode.
Tanks on the Gaza border. Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
Other sources inside and outside the ministry confirm that the Egyptians were “extremely uneasy” and repeatedly tried to convey messages, based on their deep understanding of Gaza, an understanding that at that moment appears to have surpassed Israel’s own.
One source confirmed that Egypt frequently conveyed messages to the Foreign Ministry that the situation with the Palestinians in general and in Gaza in particular was volatile and required resolution rather than mere management of the conflict. He added that when sensitive information arrives, it is immediately reported to more senior officials within and beyond the ministry, meaning the Prime Minister’s Office.
A mysterious plane at Ben Gurion
On Sept. 26, 2023, while Israel’s leadership gathered for a ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, an episode unfolded that seemed lifted from a spy novel. A plane linked to Egyptian intelligence landed in an isolated area of Ben Gurion Airport, remained on the runway for a short time, and took off back to Cairo.
Officials familiar with special operations protocols believe that an urgent meeting took place aboard the plane during that brief window. At those same hours, then National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, the official meant to maintain continuous contact with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, was absent from the ceremony. Was he dealing with the next war at that moment? The National Security Council declined to comment.
Ben Gurion Airport. A mysterious landing on Sept. 26, 2023. Photo: Koko
It should be added that Kamel maintained frequent contact with senior Israeli officials, including ministers, and supported the development of these ties. This was evident publicly in late 2021, when then-economy minister Orna Barbivai met Kamel to advance economic relations.
A day later, in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, easing measures and arrangements for the Gaza Strip were approved, according to a source who was present in the room.
The National Security Council and Netanyahu
It was not only the Foreign Ministry. Two Israeli political sources confirmed to me that an Egyptian source delivered a focused warning to the National Security Council. The warning referred to “something big” that was coming. This information, parts of which were previously reported in Yedioth Ahronoth and the foreign press, was also confirmed to us.
According to these sources, a senior Egyptian source warned the National Security Council before Oct. 7 of the impending disaster. Dr. Nimrod Novik made similar remarks to journalist Amir Oren on the podcast “Afrakasset.”
The questions that remain open are those that should keep every Israeli awake at night, chief among them what Prime Minister Netanyahu knew. While the information flowed, according to testimony, to the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council, which reports directly to the prime minister and is headed by his personal adviser, Netanyahu continued to project business as usual.
Tzachi Hanegbi, former head of the National Security Council. Photo: Reuters // Haim Goldberg / Flash90
Sources involved in the details argue that it is inconceivable that such sensitive information from Egypt, especially a warning about “something big,” was not placed on the prime minister’s desk by the National Security Council head or professional officials. The sources we spoke with stressed that information of this kind does not remain at their level but is passed upward.
Was the information described in these testimonies swallowed by the “conceptual blindness” surrounding Qatari money and the policy of arrangements with Gaza? Did the political echelon interpret the Egyptian warnings as “political,” given tensions with the right-wing government and Temple Mount issues? And most importantly, who in the chain of command decided that “everything is under control, an arrangement is coming”?
Publicly, after then-foreign minister Eli Cohen met his Egyptian counterpart in New York, Egypt reported discussions about “the Palestinian situation,” while Israel reported “regional cooperation.” The gap between Egypt’s public and secret warnings and Israel’s complacency is where the failure was born.
When the three points are connected — the delegation at the Foreign Ministry, the mysterious plane at Ben Gurion, and the focused warning to the National Security Council — the testimony paints a chilling picture of a warning that was allegedly missed. The failure was not only intelligence-related but systemic: a state that refused to listen to those who understood its enemy better than it did.
Responses
The Foreign Ministry said: “This is false. There was no such meeting and no such information was conveyed. Any other publication is fake news serving an unknown actor.”
The National Security Council responded: “The council has no information about a general warning from Egypt that was conveyed to the Foreign Ministry regarding the situation in Gaza, and contrary to the claims, no concrete warning was passed to the council regarding the Oct. 7 attack or the likelihood of war. Additionally, we are unaware of an Egyptian plane that arrived in Israel on the date in question, and the matter is unrelated to the National Security Council head’s schedule.”
