Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has officially confirmed that Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, visited Israel in the period leading up to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack. The admission comes amidst intense scrutiny regarding the Israeli government's preparedness and the intelligence community's awareness of potential threats in the days preceding the conflict.

While the visit has been a subject of speculation and political debate for months, Netanyahu’s acknowledgment provides official verification of the meeting. The context of this visit remains a point of significant interest, as critics of the Prime Minister have frequently questioned whether high-level warnings from regional partners were adequately addressed or acted upon by the Israeli security establishment.

Netanyahu’s statement serves to clarify the timeline of diplomatic engagements during that period, though it does not detail the specific content of the discussions held between the Prime Minister and the Egyptian intelligence chief. The confirmation is expected to fuel further calls for a comprehensive inquiry into the intelligence failures that preceded the October 7 events. As the government faces pressure to account for its actions, this admission highlights the complex web of regional intelligence sharing that existed before the outbreak of the current war.