An Israeli military officer employed in the Prime Minister’s Office is one of five individuals detained in connection with an investigation into leaked classified documents.
The officer, identified as 32-year-old Eli Feldstein, worked as a military spokesperson in the Prime Minister’s Office and was among those arrested on Friday. The identities of the remaining suspects are currently protected under a gag order.
The leaked documents, reportedly originating from Hamas, allegedly served as the foundation for a September report in the London-based Jewish Chronicle. The Chronicle claimed that Hamas planned to smuggle Israeli hostages from Gaza to the Sinai and eventually transfer them to Iran, but later retracted the story and dismissed the journalist, admitting the report was fabricated. The documents also reportedly informed a piece by Germany’s Bild daily, which suggested that Hamas was intentionally delaying hostage negotiations to intensify psychological pressure on the Israeli government.
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According to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, these documents were not obtained by Israeli forces in Gaza but through “another type of intelligence,” raising concerns about potential exposure of Israel’s intelligence-gathering methods.
Feldstein is suspected of having received the documents before they appeared in the Chronicle and Bild, along with interpretations that aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance, as Netanyahu was under public pressure to reach a ceasefire and secure a hostage release at the time.
Authorities are further examining how Feldstein, who lacked the necessary security clearance, accessed not only the documents but also confidential meetings.
At a joint press conference in Tel Aviv, opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz raised questions regarding the potential involvement of Netanyahu. “Netanyahu’s defense is that he has no influence or control over the system he heads. If that’s true, he’s ineligible. He is not qualified to lead the State of Israel in the most difficult war in its history,” Lapid stated. “This case came out of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the investigation should check if it was not on the prime minister’s orders.”
On October 7, at least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken hostage during Hamas’s attacks on communities near the Gaza border. Of the 97 hostages still held, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also detained two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015 and holds the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
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