Israeli court says Netanyahu adviser suspected of leaking secrets

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A former spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents that may have damaged negotiations over a hostage deal in Gaza, a court said on Sunday.

Eliezer Feldstein was arrested along with three other people, including security officers, the court in the coastal town of Rishon LeZion said.

News of the case has led the opposition to question whether Netanyahu was involved in the revelation – a claim denied by his office.

Critics have long accused the prime minister of stalling ceasefire negotiations and prolonging the war to appease his right-wing extremist coalition partners.

Israeli intelligence and the army launched an investigation into the breach in September after two newspapers, the British weekly The Jewish Chronicle and the German tabloid Bild, published articles based on the secret military documents.

One claimed that a document had been discovered showing that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – who was later killed by Israel – and the Gaza hostages left the area via the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border would be smuggled into Egypt.

The other was based on an alleged internal memo from the Hamas leadership about Sinwar's strategy to obstruct talks on the release of hostages.

The first leaked document turned out to be a forgery and the internal memo was actually written by lower-level Hamas fighters, Israeli media reports said.

The Israeli court said publishing the documents risked “causing serious damage to state security.”

“This could jeopardize the ability of the security authorities to achieve the goal of releasing the hostages as part of the war aims,” it said.

Key opposition leader Yair Lapid told reporters on Sunday that the details of “the serious security affair in Netanyahu's office should worry every Israeli.”

“This matter originated in the Prime Minister's Office and the investigation must clarify whether it was not on the orders of the Prime Minister,” Lapid added.

“It is suspected that Netanyahu's associates leaked classified documents and falsified classified documents to undermine a possible release of the hostages and to create a media campaign against the hostages' families.”

Another leading opposition politician, Benny Gantz, said: “This is not about alleged leaks, but about profiteering from state secrets for political purposes.”

On Friday, Netanyahu denied the allegations and said “the document published by Bild never reached his office.”

Without naming Feldstein, he said the former aide “never attended security meetings or viewed confidential documents.”

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