Netanyahu blames Arab countries, left-wing parties for ‘blood libel’ Over Oct. 7

Israeli media reports had claimed an Egyptian intelligence minister contacted Israel to warn that Hamas was planning a “terrible operation.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused foreign actors, including Arab countries, of promoting media “blood libels” alleging that he knew about Hamas’ plans before October 7, strongly denying that Egyptian intelligence warned him about the impending attack.

“In the months preceding October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not meet or speak with Abbas Kamel, who was then head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, and no Israeli intelligence source conveyed an Egyptian warning to the Prime Minister,” Netanyahu wrote.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has never met or spoken with the head of intelligence of a foreign country without their Israeli counterparts,” he emphasized.

Netanyahu said he had instructed that legal action be taken over the allegations. “The Prime Minister instructed to file a libel suit on this matter as well.”

Egyptian officials also denied reports shortly after the October 7 attack that Egypt had warned Israel about a major Hamas operation 10 days before the war.

Israeli media reports had claimed Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel contacted Israel to warn that Hamas was planning a “terrible operation.”

Netanyahu accused foreign actors of seeking political change in Israel through the allegations.

“Behind these false blood libels stand foreign and hostile states and actors, including Arab countries, with the aim of toppling Netanyahu’s right-wing government and replacing it with an Eisenkot-Yair Golan-Liberman left-wing-Arab parties government that would withdraw from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Judea and Samaria, and establish a Palestinian state,” he wrote.

He also described reports alleging prior knowledge as “a vile and false campaign aimed at pinning all of Ronen Bar’s failures and crimes on the eve of October 7 on Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu accused Bar of possessing information about the threat but failing to alert him or take sufficient action.

“Ronen Bar decided not to call and update the Prime Minister, not to alert the readiness squads and IDF forces in the field, not to evacuate the Nova festival,” Netanyahu wrote.

Bar, the former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, was dismissed by Netanyahu in March 2025 over what the prime minister described as a loss of trust. The dismissal prompted mass protests and was temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court.

After accepting responsibility for the agency’s failures surrounding the October 7 attack, Bar resigned in June 2025.