stalled
TIA GOLDENBERG
Updated Sun, November 3, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony for those killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and those who fell in the "Iron Sword" war, at the Knesset, the Parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.
(Debbie Hill, Pool Photo via AP)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli court on Sunday loosened a gag order on a case investigating leaks of classified information suspected to involve one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s media advisers. Critics say the leaks were aimed at giving Netanyahu political cover as Gaza cease-fire talks ground to a halt.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, downplaying the affair and publicly calling for the gag order to be lifted. Netanyahu has said the person in question “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”
On Sunday, an Israeli court allowed the publication of the name of the central suspect in the case, Eli Feldstein, whom Israeli media said was one of Netanyahu’s media advisers. Israeli media reports say the case concerns the leak of classified information to two European media outlets, allegedly by Feldstein, who may not have been formally employed and did not have security clearance. The media reported Feldstein joined Netanyahu as an adviser weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and previously worked as an adviser to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The court did not release the names of three other suspects who are also being investigated in connection with the leak.
The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt, and an article in Germany's Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out the talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about the articles, which appeared to support Netanyahu's demands in the talks and absolve him of blame for their failure. Netanyahu made no mention of the case in a visit to Israel’s northern border with Israel Sunday, according to a video released by his office.
The articles came out as Netanyahu was calling for lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, a demand that was first made public over the summer. Hamas rejected the demand and accused Netanyahu of deliberately sabotaging the talks, which have been mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
The articles also seemed to provide political cover as Netanyahu faced intense criticism from the families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public, who blame him for the failure to reach a deal. The criticism reached a fever pitch in early September, with mass protests and calls for a general strike, after Hamas killed six hostages as Israeli troops closed in on them.
A court document confirmed that an investigation by police, the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency is underway and that a number of suspects have been arrested for questioning. It said the affair poses “a risk to sensitive information and sources" and “harms the achievement of the goals of the war in the Gaza Strip.”
The leak led to a scandal at the Jewish Chronicle, where prominent columnists resigned in protest over the discredited articles. The London-based newspaper removed the article in question and others by a freelance journalist, saying it was “not satisfied with some of his claims.”
The Bild article suggested Hamas was not serious about the negotiations and was using psychological warfare to stoke Israeli divisions. Netanyahu cited it in a meeting with his Cabinet after it was published.
He again defended the article in a statement released over the weekend, saying it had “exposed the Hamas methods of exerting psychological pressure from home and abroad on the Israeli government and public by blaming Israel for the failure of the talks to release the hostages.”
Netanyahu has sought to blame Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel ignited the war, for the failure of the talks. Hamas, which is still holding scores of hostages, has said it will only release them in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas says those demands have not changed following last month's killing of its top leader Yahya Sinwar, as the United States, Egypt and Qatar seek to restart the negotiations.
Netanyahu, often described by critics as image-obsessed, is on trial for corruption in three separate cases, two of which involve accusations that he gave favors to media moguls in exchange for positive coverage.
His office has downplayed the latest affair and accused the judiciary of bias, citing the many other leaks over the course of the war. It has also denied the leak in question had any impact on the cease-fire talks.
“The document only helped the effort to return the hostages, and certainly did not harm it,” Netanyahu's office said in a statement Saturday, adding that he only learned about the document when it was publicized.
His critics say the allegations are far more serious.
Yoav Limor, writing in the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom, called it “one of the gravest affairs Israel has ever known.”
“The damage it caused extends beyond the realm of national security and gives rise to suspicion that the prime minister’s bureau acted to scuttle a hostage deal, contrary to the war’s objectives.”
Israeli authorities probe suspected Gaza intelligence leak by Netanyahu aide
Updated Sun, November 3, 2024
Court ruling on the lifting of a gag order on an ongoing investigation into the suspected leak of classified documents seized in Gaza by Israeli PM Netanyahu's circle, in Rishon Lezion
By Rami Amichay and Maayan Lubell
RISHON LE-ZION, Israel (Reuters) - A suspected leak of classified Gaza documents involving an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has jolted Israeli politics and outraged the families of hostages held by Hamas who have been pushing for a deal to get their loved ones home.
Details of the case have trickled out slowly because of a gag order.
But a magistrate's ruling partly lifting the order has provided an initial glimpse of the case that the court said had compromised security sources and may have harmed Israel's efforts to release the hostages.
"Classified and sensitive intelligence information was taken from IDF (Israel Defence Forces) systems and taken out illegally," a ruling by the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates' Court said on Sunday, which may have caused "serious damage to the state's security and posed a risk to information sources".
In that, the court said, the leak could have hurt efforts to release the hostages.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing by his office staffers and said in a statement on Saturday that he was only made aware of the leaked document by the media.
The four suspects - one a spokesman from Netanyahu's circle and three of them members of the security establishment - could not be reached for comment.
Details from the document in question were published by the German Bild newspaper on Sept. 6, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, one of the media outlets that had appealed the court to lift the gag order.
The article, labelled as an exclusive, purportedly outlined the negotiation strategy of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militant group that Israel has been fighting in Gaza for more than a year.
Around that time, the United States, Qatar and Egypt were mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, that were to include a deal to release hostages held in Gaza.
But the talks faltered with Israel and Hamas trading blame for the deadlock. The article in question largely corresponded with Netanyahu's allegations against Hamas over the impasse.
It was published days after six Israeli hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza. Their killing sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing the ceasefire talks for political reasons.
On Saturday, some of the families joined the Israeli journalists' appeal to lift the gag order.
"These people have been living on a rollercoaster of rumours and half truths," said their lawyer, Dana Pugach.
"For the last year they have been waiting to hear any intelligence or any information about negotiations for the release of those hostages. If some of that information had been stolen from army sources then we think that the families have the right to learn about any relevant detail," she added.
In another session on Sunday about the investigation by the Shin Bet domestic security service, police and the military, the court ordered one suspect be released, while keeping others in remand, according to Haaretz.
Asked about the investigation, Bild said that it does not comment on its sources. "The authenticity of the document known to us was confirmed by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) immediately after publication," it said.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
(Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Friederike Heine in Berlin; Editing by James Mackenzie, Christina Fincher and Barbara Lewis)
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