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A newly published investigation by The Atlantic has reconstructed a previously under-examined episode in the lead-up to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack: a discreet, exceptionally rare visit by Egypt's intelligence chief to Israel just eleven days before the assault, carrying what was described as a stark warning about the deteriorating situation in Gaza.
The reporting, by staff writer and attorney Vivian Salama, centers on September 26, 2023 — a date when Israel's national security establishment was gathering to mark the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, itself one of the most consequential intelligence failures in the country's history. On that same day, Abbas Kamel, then head of Egyptian intelligence, arrived in Israel for a visit that was kept remarkably quiet.
According to Salama's reconstruction, Kamel spent approximately 67 minutes on Israeli soil and met with senior figures in Israel's national security apparatus. The visit was not publicized, and its details have remained largely out of view until now. Salama pieced the account together over months of reporting, relying on Israeli and independent flight data, sources on both sides of the Egyptian-Israeli border, and individuals who were later briefed on what transpired.
The core finding is not merely that a warning was conveyed, but that it entered a security and political system that ultimately failed to act on it. As one former Israeli official told Salama, there is effectively no scenario in which a meeting of that significance could occur without the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The official's words — that "there is no world where top Israeli officials meet with the head of Egyptian intelligence and Benjamin Netanyahu is not aware" — frame the central question of the investigation: what happened to the warning after it was delivered?
Egypt was far from the only source of alarm in the period before October 7. According to the article, Israeli surveillance units, intelligence personnel, and military officials had themselves been picking up unusual Hamas activity inside Gaza in the preceding months and weeks. These included exercises and preparations that bore striking similarities to the attack that eventually materialized — a detail that raises uncomfortable questions about how such indicators were interpreted at the time.
The picture widens further with reporting from Haaretz, cited in the article, that the leader of the United Arab Emirates also warned Netanyahu about the danger emanating from Gaza. Taken together, these accounts suggest a multipronged flow of warnings from regional partners and from Israel's own collection apparatus, all pointing in the same direction.
Yet no adequate response followed. Israel's subsequent military inquiries have themselves acknowledged profound failures — both in assessing Hamas's capabilities and intentions and in grasping the scale and imminence of the threat. Those admissions have done little to quiet the broader debate over responsibility, but they do confirm that the warnings did not translate into protective action.
Salama's reporting pushes the inquiry beyond the narrow question of whether a warning existed. The more consequential puzzle, she suggests, is systemic: how can critical information circulate within a security apparatus and still fail to become effective action? The question implicates not just individual decision-makers but the structures, assumptions, and bureaucratic filters that shape how intelligence is prioritized — or dismissed.
The Egyptian visit carries particular weight because of its rarity. Direct, discreet engagement between Egypt's intelligence chief and senior Israeli national security officials is not a routine occurrence, and the timing — on a day freighted with symbolic significance for Israeli intelligence — makes the episode all the more notable. The juxtaposition of a commemoration of past failure with the delivery of a fresh warning is one that analysts are likely to revisit.
Kamel's roughly 67 minutes in Israel have become a focal point precisely because so much about the visit remains unresolved. Who exactly did he meet? What was the content of the warning? How was it recorded, relayed, and escalated — or not? Salama's account establishes the contours of the visit but leaves open the question of what reached Netanyahu and his advisers, and in what form.
The pressure for a fuller accounting has been mounting. Calls for an independent investigation into the failures surrounding October 7 have grown, and Salama's reporting adds a new dimension to that demand by focusing attention on the window before the attack rather than only on the day itself. The story, as she presents it, remains unfinished.
For Israel, the implications extend beyond any single meeting. The episode fits a pattern in which warnings from multiple directions — foreign partners, allied leaders, and Israel's own observers — converged but did not produce a decisive response. Understanding why requires examining not only what officials knew but how information moves through a system that may be predisposed to underestimate a particular adversary.
For Egypt, the revelation underscores its role as a back-channel actor in a region where quiet diplomacy often carries more weight than public statements. Cairo's willingness to send its intelligence chief in person suggests a level of concern that was not matched by visible follow-through on the Israeli side.
Salama, whose reporting has taken her to more than 85 countries, continues to assemble the pieces of a story that touches on intelligence, politics, and the limits of warning. Her investigation does not claim to have every answer, but it sharpens the questions that any credible inquiry will have to address.
As the anniversary of October 7 approaches and scrutiny of the pre-attack period intensifies, the Egyptian warning — and the silence that followed it — stands as a case study in how information can be present, acknowledged, and still fail to prevent catastrophe. The full accounting of who knew what, and when, is one that Israeli officials have yet to provide.
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