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Leak from Benjamin Netanyahu's office puts IDF soldiers and hostages at risk – Israel News

The security breach at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office poses major risks to hostage rescue operations and the lives of soldiers, a source involved in the investigation told Kan News on Monday.

“That was a [life-threatening affair] that the Shin Bet had to step in and stop,” the source noted. “If we had not stopped the leak, it could have endangered the lives of security forces in the Gaza Strip and hostages could have been harmed.”

Earlier in the day, an IDF officer was arrested as another suspect in the case. The investigation found that the leaked material was not a document recovered by soldiers in Gaza, but a different type of intelligence information, the disclosure of which could have compromised intelligence sources.

Warnings about the main suspect were ignored

The Prime Minister's Office had been warned that Eliezer Feldstein, one of the main suspects in the case, had failed a security clearance. Despite the warning, Feldstein continued his role.

Eliezer Feldstein, the main suspect in the PMO security leak affair. (Source: IDF Spokesperson Unit, Via Maariv)

Recently, Netanyahu's office tried to distance itself from Feldstein, claiming he was not officially part of the office staff. However, he continued in his role until a few days ago, despite the clear warning and information available to senior officials in the office.

Feldstein is suspected of leaking confidential security documents as part of an orchestrated campaign to thwart a hostage deal, court documents released Sunday revealed.

It has already been described as one of the worst security breaches in the country's history. More specific details are scarce, but the court decision showed that four people were under investigation, including civilian Eliezer Feldstein, a close confidant of Netanyahu who had worked for him informally.

Alleged disclosure to foreign media

Some of the documents in question are widely believed to be related to two reports in September, near the height of public pressure in support of a hostage deal after the bodies of six hostages who had been executed just days earlier were recovered from Rafah became.

The reports in the German newspaper Picture and the British Jewish Chroniclesupported views expressed by the prime minister at the time that Hamas had no intention of entering into a hostage deal and that it planned to smuggle hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt.

The prime minister used the latter to underscore his assertion that soldiers must remain along the Philadelphia Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

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Tovah Lazaroff and Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.



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