The Atlantic: Egypt's intelligence chief had warned Israel of Hamas attack

Days before Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, Egypt's former intelligence chief Abbas Kamel delivered a blunt warning to senior Israeli officials at Ben Gurion Airport: "If you don't change course, Gaza is going to blow up in your faces," The Atlantic reported.

Kamel's warning first came to the fore when an Egyptian intelligence official told the Associated Press that Israel ignored repeated warnings that Hamas was planning “something big” and the Ynet news site reported that the intelligence chief personally warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 10 days before the attack that prompted Israel's ongoing genocidal onslaught on Gaza.

The Atlanic reported that Kamel didn’t provide Israeli officials with a date or specific information on the attack, and it was also not clear exactly with whom he met.

The magazine reported that Egyptian plane, in which Kamel landed at the airport, remained on the ground in Israel for 67 minutes, according to an Israeli-airport-authority flight log, before returning to Cairo.

An investigation published by Haaretz recently said the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned Israel's prime minister weeks before the 7 October attacks that Hamas was planning a major operation, but the Israeli premier dismissed the warning and did not inform Israel's security or military leaders.

The warning was reportedly made during a 45-minute phone call, Haaretz reported.

"The emir explained that, in his assessment, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar was preparing for a major event," a Gaza-born adviser to the UAE ruler, who was present during the call, said.