Arrests. Classified documents. And suspected leaks that may have harmed efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in order, critics say, to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for failing to agree to a cease-fire deal. Netanyahu was engulfed in scandal Monday over a case involving one of his aides that has sent shock waves across the country.
The firestorm — brought into public view when an Israeli court loosened a gag order Sunday night — has enraged Netanyahu’s political opponents and hostages’ families. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics have alleged that he put hostages’ lives and national security at risk to buttress his hard-line position in stalled cease-fire talks by leaking Gaza documents to friendly media outlets.
In a ruling Sunday, the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates’ Court said an investigation had been launched after suspicions arose within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency, or the Shin Bet, that “classified and sensitive intelligence” had been illegally taken from IDF systems.
The action, the court said, may not only have caused “serious harm to state security and the endangerment of intelligence sources,” but it also could have harmed “the goal of releasing the hostages” who were taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
The court identified the central suspect in the case as Eliezer Feldstein, reported by Israeli media to have been one of Netanyahu’s media advisers.
In addition to Feldstein, three other people the court described as “detainees involved in the activities” were questioned. The court has yet to publicly identify them.
Israeli media have reported that the information suspected of being leaked formed the basis of multiple articles on Hamas’ approach to the hostage situation, including an article published by the London-based Jewish Chronicle that was later withdrawn after widespread criticism. NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm that reporting.
The Jewish Chronicle article had suggested that Hamas planned to move hostages out of Gaza through Egypt, while a separate article published by the German newspaper Bild reported that Hamas was drawing out negotiations for a cease-fire deal as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
Both articles drew skepticism from Israeli observers given their timing and the apparent cover they gave Netanyahu as he was accused of deliberately sabotaging cease-fire negotiations.
“There was something very fishy about them. Also about the timing of everything,” Mairav Zonszein, Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Israel, said in a phone interview Monday.
The Jewish Chronicle and Bild did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The reports emerged as Netanyahu insisted on Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt, a demand that became a major sticking point in cease-fire talks. They also came as Netanyahu faced mounting outrage from hostages’ families and much of the country’s public over his failure to agree to a cease-fire deal after six hostages were killed in Hamas’ captivity.
While Israeli media had reported some details of the probe and the gag order had been partially lifted last week, it was not until Sunday that crucial and explosive allegations were revealed.
In a statement before the ruling, Netanyahu’s office said the materials suspected of being leaked had never reached the prime minister’s office from the Military Intelligence Directorate and that Netanyahu had learned about the document in question from the media.
It added that the aide implicated in the suspected leaks had “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”
But political opponents, hostages’ families and critics expressed outrage over the potential involvement of one of Netanyahu’s aides.
“It’s left me yet again disappointed but not surprised by this government,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“I feel utterly betrayed, not just as a hostage father but as an Israeli citizen,” he said in a phone interview Monday.
Dekel-Chen said that if the allegations raised in the investigation are true, it would be the latest in a “long series” of moments when Netanyahu’s government has “invented reasons to not move forward in the negotiation process.”
Gil Dickmann’s cousin Carmel Gat was one of six hostages killed in Hamas captivity — an incident that sparked national outrage not long before the media reports were published.
He noted the timing but said that if the intention was to sway public opinion, “it didn’t work,” as he pointed to major demonstrations in the following days pressuring Netanyahu to secure a cease-fire.
In a statement, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of those still in Hamas captivity, expressed “outrage and deep concern” at the possibility that at least one Netanyahu aide may have “worked to undermine public support” for a deal.
Benny Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu’s now-dissolved war Cabinet in June, said on X that “if sensitive security information was stolen and used as a tool in a political survival campaign, it’s not just a criminal offense; it’s a national crime.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid rejected claims from Netanyahu’s office that Netanyahu had been previously unaware of the materials alleged to have been leaked.
“If Netanyahu didn’t know that his close aides were stealing documents, planting spies within the IDF, forging documents, exposing intelligence sources, and passing classified documents to the foreign press to stop the hostage deal—what *does* he know?” Lapid said on X.
Zonszein, Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Israel, said that even if Netanyahu was not directly involved, the suspected leak would have emerged from a “well-oiled machine that is already accustomed to taking sensitive information and manipulating it for political purposes.”
But she said that would not “come as a surprise at all.”
“I think for the people who are already convinced that Netanyahu was playing with the public’s consciousness and wasn’t interested in a hostage deal, this is kind of just further proof,” she said.
First appeared on www.nbcnews.com