The remarks came after the prime minister confirmed that an Egyptian aircraft had landed in Israel in September 2023, just days before the October 7 Hamas attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in an interview with Channel 14's The Patriots on Tuesday that he had never met with a foreign intelligence chief in his capacity as prime minister, despite official records showing that he hosted Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel at his Jerusalem residence in May 2021 and discussed security and diplomatic matters with him.
"When does an intelligence chief come and speak to a head of state? It hasn't happened to me once, OK? There's no such thing," Netanyahu said during the interview.
The remarks came after the prime minister confirmed that an Egyptian aircraft had landed in Israel in September 2023, just days before the October 7 Hamas attack.
Netanyahu denied meeting with the Egyptian intelligence chief on that occasion, saying he had been attending a memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers at the time.
He also demanded to know whom the senior Egyptian official had met during his visit to Israel.
"I want to know who he met. I don't know," Netanyahu said, claiming that whoever had met the official was trying to "pin it on me."
However, in attempting to explain why it would be unlikely for an intelligence chief to meet with a prime minister, Netanyahu made a sweeping assertion that contradicts the documented history of his own meetings.
The official statement and photograph from May 2021
On May 30, 2021, the Prime Minister's Office published a statement titled "Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with Egyptian General Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel and a delegation of senior officials headed by him."
The statement explicitly said: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with Egyptian General Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel and a delegation of senior officials headed by him at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem."
According to the statement, the two discussed strengthening cooperation between Israel and Egypt and regional issues, and welcomed the ties between the countries and their joint efforts on security and diplomatic matters.
The statement also said Netanyahu raised Israel's demand for the return of the soldiers and civilians who were being held in the Gaza Strip at the time.
The meeting also addressed mechanisms to prevent Hamas from building up its capabilities and from using resources intended for the civilian population.
The meeting was also attended by then-intelligence minister Eli Cohen and then-national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who had previously held an extended meeting with Kamel.
The statement was accompanied by an official photograph of Netanyahu and Kamel shaking hands, taken by Government Press Office photographer Amos Ben-Gershom.
A video of the meeting was also published on the prime minister's official YouTube channel.
In other words, this was not a meeting revealed retrospectively through anonymous sources, but a diplomatic event that Netanyahu himself chose to make public through his office.
Netanyahu also met with the CIA director
The meeting with the Egyptian intelligence chief is not the only instance that calls into question Netanyahu's sweeping claim.
In February 2024, Walla reported that then-CIA director William Burns had arrived in Israel and met with Netanyahu and former Mossad chief David Barnea as part of efforts to advance a deal to release the hostages being held in Gaza.
Netanyahu and Burns met again in Jerusalem in May of that year, against the backdrop of negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal.
Such meetings are a routine part of diplomatic and security relations between national leaders and the heads of foreign intelligence agencies, particularly when those officials are involved in sensitive negotiations or serve as envoys for their governments.