An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alleged to have leaked classified information to foreign press in the hopes of influencing public opinion on hostage negotiations, according to a court release published Sunday.
Eliezer Feldstein was arrested earlier this month for allegedly leaking “classified and sensitive intelligence information,” according to court documents. Sunday’s court release outlines more of the details surrounding this alleged leak.
According to the magistrate’s court of Rishon Lezion, the leak began when a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the Israeli military reserves took a “highly sensitive and classified document” from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
In April this year, the NCO sent a copy of the document to Feldstein, who distributed it to Israeli media outlets in September “with the aim of influencing public opinion on the ongoing negotiations concerning the hostages,” the court release said.
This came shortly after the Israeli military announced on September 1 that six Israeli hostages were killed in Gaza. Four of them were due to be released in the first wave of a potential deal.
Israeli media outlets were prevented from publishing articles related to the leaked document by the country’s censorship authorities, the court release said, so Feldstein “decided to bypass censorship and publish the document in foreign media.”
Two articles published in September, one in the United Kingdom’s Jewish Chronicle and another in Germany’s Bild, included information related to the leaks. Both cited Israeli intelligence sources and supported a narrative being pushed by Netanyahu at the time.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz – who quit Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet earlier this year – seized on the alleged leaks as a failure at the very top of government, with Gantz calling it a “national crime.”
Both blamed Netanyahu’s office for the leak, with Gantz accusing Netanyahu of leveraging the leaks for political gains.
A spokesperson for Netanyahu denied earlier this month that there were leaks from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and said that the “person in question never participated in security-related discussions,” apparently referring to Feldstein.
The PMO also downplayed the possibility that the leak impacted negotiations with Hamas over the release of hostages from Gaza, calling the claim “ridiculous.”