TEL AVIV — Israeli prosecutors have accused one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides of illegally leaking classified intelligence in an attempt to blunt widespread criticism of the prime minister’s handling of the Gaza hostage crisis.
The allegations, detailed in newly released court filings, are part of a sprawling criminal probe that has rocked Israel’s government and led to the aide’s arrest and detention in prison. Four military personnel have also been arrested in connection with the case.
Investigators discovered that a low-level Israeli soldier had illegally removed Hamas documents from a military database and passed them to Eli Feldstein, a communications consultant working for Netanyahu, prosecutors said.
Feldstein, 32, then tried to get the documents published in the media with the goal of showing that the hostage families’ protests were playing into Hamas’ hands, according to the prosecutors’ filings, which were published Sunday.
Feldstein acted “with the intention of influencing public opinion in Israel on the negotiations regarding the hostages and in particular the issue of the contribution of the demonstrations to the strengthening of Hamas,” prosecutors said.
Their filings came after Netanyahu’s chief of staff was questioned as part of a separate investigation into allegations that he tried to tamper with official phone logs from the day of Hamas‘ Oct. 7 terror attack, a police official told NBC News.
Netanyahu has not been personally accused of wrongdoing in either case and his office denies the allegations, saying it is being targeted by politically motivated security officials attempting to undermine the government.
The leak investigation, referred to in Israeli media as “BibiLeaks,” from the prime minister’s nickname “Bibi,” was launched after the German tabloid Bild published an article in early September based on leaked Hamas documents.
The newspaper claimed it had obtained documents from the personal computer of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, who was subsequently killed by Israeli forces in October.
The documents, according to the Bild report, showed Hamas was not interested in a quick cease-fire and believed that the protests by hostage families would weaken Israel’s negotiating position.
The story was published at a time of intense public anger toward Netanyahu in Israel following the murder of six hostages, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg Polin, by Hamas in late August.
Days after it was published, Netanyahu cited the article as evidence of Hamas’ intent “to use psychological warfare on the hostage families” and to put pressure on the Israeli government.
But inside the Israeli military, the story’s publication set off alarm bells. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the document cited by Bild was several months old and was not written by Sinwar, but instead a mid-level Hamas operative.
Military leaders ordered an investigation into the leak of the document — which was classified as “top secret” — and called in the police and the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency.
In Sunday’s filings, prosecutors said that when Israeli media declined to publish the document because of military censorship rules, Feldstein went around the domestic censor by giving the document to the Bild newspaper in Germany. A Bild spokesman told NBC News that the newspaper does not comment on its sourcing.
Feldstein was arrested in late October. The Israeli soldier accused of leaking the document to him has also been arrested, along with three other military personnel, prosecutors said.
On Monday, Israeli prison authorities said Feldstein had been placed on suicide watch.
Asked to comment on Sunday’s court filings, Netanyahu’s office referred NBC News to a statement from Nov. 12 that said police had invoked special powers reserved for national security cases to hold Feldstein in isolation and deny him access to a lawyer.
“It hurts us very much that the lives of young people are being destroyed with idle claims to harm the Right-wing government,” his office said. “In a democratic country people are not arrested because of a leak for 20 days in the basements — while preventing a meeting with a lawyer for many days — just to extract from them false statements against the Prime Minister.”
Netanyahu has a history of railing against Israeli law enforcement. In 2019, he became the first sitting prime minister in the country’s history to be charged with a crime.
He denies the litany of bribery, fraud and breach of trust allegations and has said the prosecution is politically motivated. His lawyers have repeatedly tried to delay trial proceedings, citing his wartime leadership responsibilities.
The Hostage Family Forum said in a statement Monday that it was “appalled by the ongoing efforts of individuals close to the prime minister to sabotage a potential hostage deal.”
The advocacy group, which represents hostages and their families has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu and his government over the negotiations to free those taken captive by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Around 100 people remain in captivity, although around a third are believed to be dead.
Police are also investigating allegations against Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff. Braverman was questioned for several hours last week but has not been arrested or charged, according to an Israeli police official briefed on the investigation.
Police are looking into claims that Braverman falsified phone records from the morning of Oct. 7, the official said. The alleged alterations appear intended to make it look like Netanyahu sprung into action more quickly than he did.
Braverman allegedly asked an aide to change phone records to make it look like a conversation that was logged as having occurred at 6.40 a.m. instead took place 11 minutes earlier, at 6.29 a.m., the official said. Braverman then changed the log himself in a handwritten note.
The police investigation is completed and prosecutors will now make a decision on whether any charges are merited.
Jack Chen, an attorney for Braverman, told NBC News that the situation was the result of a misunderstanding about the order of the phone calls during the chaotic early hours of the Hamas attack. He said Braverman had explained the misunderstanding to police, and they released him without any restrictive conditions.
Netanyahu’s office would not comment specifically on Braverman’s questioning but pointed to an earlier statement made by the prime minister on Nov. 10.
“For the past few days, my office has been under a wild and unrestrained attack,” Netanyahu said at the time. “The goal is not to protect the security of the state. The goal is to promote an agenda of weakness and concessions during the war.”
