Netanyahu has sharply rejected reports that Egypt warned him of an impending Hamas attack before Oct. 7, turning the dispute into a broader fight over responsibility for Israel’s prewar intelligence failures.

The Israeli prime minister said he neither met nor spoke with then-Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in the months before the attack and that no Israeli intelligence official passed such a warning to him. He said he had ordered a defamation suit over the allegations and accused parts of the Israeli media of trying to shift blame onto him.

Netanyahu instead singled out former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, arguing that Bar failed to alert him directly or sufficiently warn Israeli forces despite discussions among senior security officials over mounting signs from Gaza.

He also said foreign and hostile actors, including Arab states, were helping amplify the claims to undermine his government, before framing the political stakes in electoral terms: “Either the right, or a Palestinian state.”