Netanyahu adviser arrested in Gaza hostage case shares stories

Arrests. Secret documents. And suspected leaks that could have hampered efforts to free the held hostages Hamas to, according to critics, give to the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for not agreeing to the ceasefire agreement. On Monday, Netanyahu was engulfed in scandal over a case involving one of his associates that sent shock waves across the country.

The firestorm – revealed publicly after an Israeli court relaxed its silence order on Sunday evening – infuriated Netanyahu’s political opponents and the hostages’ families. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics accuse him of risking the lives of hostages and national security to reinforce his tough stance in the impasse ceasefire talks by leakage Gauze documents to friendly media.

On Sunday, the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrate’s Court said the investigation was launched after suspicions arose within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, that “secret and sensitive intelligence data” had been illegally intercepted from systems. IDF.

This action, the court said, could not only have caused “serious harm to state security and a threat to intelligence sources,” but could also have harmed “the goal of freeing the hostages” who were taken captive during the Hamas Oct. 7 crackdown. , 2023, terrorist attacks.

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

Except Feldstein three other people were interviewed, whom the court described as “prisoners involved in these activities.” The court has not yet publicly disclosed them.

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to the hostage situation, including an article published by the London-based Jewish Chronicle newspaper that later withdrawn after widespread criticism.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

An article in the Jewish Chronicle suggested that Hamas planned to move hostages from Gaza through Egypt, while a separate article published by the German newspaper Bild reported that Hamas was stalling negotiations on a ceasefire agreement as a form of psychological warfare with Israel.

Both articles drew skepticism from Israeli observers given the timing of their publication and the apparent cover they provided for Netanyahu as he was accused of deliberately sabotaging ceasefire negotiations.

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

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

These reports came as Netanyahu was pushing for Israeli control over the US Philadelphia corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which has become a major point of contention in ceasefire talks. They also arrived as Netanyahu faced growing outrage from the hostages’ families and much of the country’s population over his failure to agree to a ceasefire agreement following the killing of six hostages in Hamas captivity.

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

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

It added that the adviser involved in the suspected leaks “never participated in security discussions, was exposed to or received classified information, or participated in secret visits.”

But political opponents, families of hostages and critics have expressed outrage at the potential involvement of one of Netanyahu’s advisers.

“Once again, I am disappointed but not surprised by this government,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

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

Dekel-Chen said that if the allegations raised in the investigation turn out to be true, it would be the latest in a “long series” of moments in which Netanyahu’s government has “invented reasons why it should not continue the negotiation process.”

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

He noted the moment but said that if the intention was to sway public opinion, it “failed,” pointing to large demonstrations that took place in the following days, pressing Netanyahu to secure a ceasefire.

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

Benny Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu’s now-disbanded war government in June, said on X that “if confidential security information is stolen and used as a tool in a campaign for political survival, it is not only a crime; it is a national crime.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid rejected claims by Netanyahu’s office that Netanyahu was not previously aware of the alleged material leaks.

“If Netanyahu didn’t know that his close associates were stealing documents, planting spies in the IDF, forging documents, leaking intelligence sources, and leaking secret documents to the foreign press to stop the hostage deal – what *does* he know? Lapid he said on X.

Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst at Crisis Group, said that even if Netanyahu had not been directly involved, the suspected leak would have emerged from a “well-oiled machine that is already accustomed to accepting confidential information and manipulating it for political purposes.”

But she said it “won’t be a surprise at all.”

“I think for people who are already convinced that Netanyahu was toying with the public’s consciousness and was not interested in a hostage deal, this is just more evidence,” she said.