Netanyahu aide arrested over Gaza hostage tells stories

Arrests. Secret documents. And alleged leaks that could have hampered efforts to free hostages being held Hamas in order, according to critics, to give the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for the failure to agree on a ceasefire. Netanyahu was engulfed in scandal on Monday over an affair involving one of his aides that sent shockwaves across the country.

The firestorm, which became public when an Israeli court eased a gag order Sunday night, has infuriated Netanyahu’s political opponents and the families of the hostages. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics say he has put hostages’ lives and national security at risk to maintain his hard-line stance in the impasse. ceasefire negotiations by leakage Gaza documents to friendly media.

On Sunday, the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court said that the investigation was launched after suspicions arose within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) that “secret and confidential information” was illegally obtained from the IDF System.

This action, according to the court, could not only cause “serious damage to state security and jeopardize sources of intelligence information”, but also could damage the “goal of freeing hostages” captured during the Hamas operation on October 7. , 2023, terrorist attacks.

The court named the main suspect in this case as Eliezer Feldstein, who, according to Israeli media, was one of Netanyahu’s media advisers.

Besides Feldstein, three more people, whom the court described as “those detained who took part in these actions,” were questioned. The court has yet to publicly identify them.

Israeli media reported that the suspected leak formed the basis of numerous articles about Hamas’s approach to the hostage situation, including an article published by the London-based Jewish Chronicle that was later withdrawn after widespread criticism. NBC News could not immediately independently confirm this information.

An article in the Jewish Chronicle stated that Hamas was planning to remove the hostages from Gaza through Egypt, and a separate article published by the German newspaper Bild reported that Hamas was delaying negotiations for a ceasefire agreement as a form of psychological warfare against Israel.

Both articles drew skepticism from Israeli observers given the timing of their publication and the apparent cover they gave Netanyahu by accusing him of deliberately sabotaging ceasefire negotiations.

“There was something very suspicious about them. Also about the timing of everything,” Mairav ​​Zonssein, Crisis Group’s senior Israel analyst, said in a telephone interview on Monday.

The Jewish Chronicle and Bild did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The reports came as Netanyahu insisted on Israeli control over Philadelphia corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt, and this demand became a major stumbling block in ceasefire negotiations. They also came as Netanyahu faced growing outrage from the families of the hostages and much of the country’s public over his failure to agree to a ceasefire after six hostages were killed in Hamas captivity.

Although Israeli media reported some details of the investigation and the gag order was partially lifted last week, it was not until Sunday that the significant and explosive allegations were revealed.

In a statement before the ruling, Netanyahu’s office said the suspected leaked materials never reached the prime minister’s office from the Defense Intelligence Agency and that Netanyahu learned about the document in question from the media.

It added that the aide involved in the alleged leaks “never participated in security discussions, was exposed or received sensitive information, or took part in secret visits.”

But political opponents, hostage families and critics have expressed outrage over the potential involvement of one of Netanyahu’s aides.

“This government again disappointed me, but did not surprise me,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagi was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

“I feel betrayed not only as a hostage father, but also as an Israeli citizen,” he said in a telephone interview Monday.

Dekel-Chen said that if the allegations made in the investigation are confirmed, it will be the latest in a “long line” of moments in which the Netanyahu government has “invented reasons not to move forward in the negotiation process.”

Gil Dickman’s cousin Carmel Gat was one of six hostages killed in Hamas captivity, an incident that sparked national outrage shortly before media reports were published.

He noted the timing but said that if the intention was to sway public opinion, “it didn’t work,” pointing to large demonstrations in the following days demanding Netanyahu push for a ceasefire.

In a statement, the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families, which represents the families of those still in Hamas captivity, expressed “outrage and deep concern” at the possibility that at least one Netanyahu aide could be “working to undermine public support” for the agreement . .

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 campaign of political survival, it is not just a criminal offense; This is a national crime.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid rejected claims from Netanyahu’s office that Netanyahu had no prior knowledge of the allegedly leaked material.

“If Netanyahu didn’t know that his top aides were stealing documents, planting spies in the IDF, falsifying documents, revealing intelligence sources, and leaking classified documents to the foreign press to stop the hostage deal, then what *does* he know?” Lapid said in X.

Zonssein, Crisis Group’s senior Israel analyst, said that even if Netanyahu had not been directly involved, the alleged leak would have come from “a well-oiled machine that is already accustomed to receiving sensitive information and manipulating it for political purposes.”

But she said it “wouldn’t come as a surprise at all.”

“I think for people who are already convinced that Netanyahu played with the public consciousness and was not interested in the hostage deal, this is kind of further proof,” she said.