Netanyahu was aware of illegally obtained classified document, suspected leaker's attorney says

Contrary to his office’s denials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of the illegal leaks of classified information to the foreign press, a lawyer of one of the suspects in the case told Army Radio on Tuesday.

It remains unclear whether the adviser from the prime minister’s media team and the suspect involved in leaking the documents, Eliezer Feldstein, was acting on his own accord or by Netanyahu’s orders.

However, if the lawyer is correct, the new information brings the case a step closer to the prime minister himself and contradicts a statement by his office on November 2, soon after the investigation became public, that “the document that was published did not arrive at the Prime Minister’s Office from the [Military] Intelligence Directorate. The prime minister learned about the incident from the media.”

Info given to the prime minister

The lawyer, Michael Fetman, represents a suspect whose identity is under gag order, a reserves, non-commissioned officer (NCO) in an intelligence unit. According to Fetman, Feldstein told Fetman’s client that he had passed on the information to Netanyahu and that “the prime minister wanted more [information] and cleared a full day to treat the issue.”

Fetman added that his client had no prior acquaintance with Feldstein but was given Feldstein’s number after inquiring about a way to pass on information directly to the Prime Minister’s Office.

His motive, according to Fetman, was to provide Netanyahu with information that he believed was crucial in order to obtain a hostage deal.

The reservist wanted to avoid a scenario similar to that of the widely reported NCO known as “V,” whose warning about the imminent threat of the Hamas attack prior to October 7 was not taken seriously and, therefore, did not make it up the chain of command, Fetman added.

Other previously unknown details emerged during the interview. First, Tuesday was the suspect’s 18th day in prison, meaning that he was arrested on Saturday, October 26. Second, he had been prevented from meeting his lawyer for the first 10 days. Third, the suspect was married with a two-year-old child. Forth, similar to Feldstein, he had grown up in an ultra-Orthodox family.

Last, no confrontation had been held between the suspect and Feldstein since the arrests were made, which suggests that their versions of the events were not contradictory.

The leaked information is under gag order but is widely believed to be connected to a document leaked in early September to the German newspaper Bild, which said that, amongst other details, Hamas was intentionally sowing internal division in Israel over the hostage issue and did not intend to go through with a deal.

Notably, Bild’s report was published as public pressure against the prime minister and in favor of a deal peaked after the bodies of six hostages had been located in southern Gaza after being executed just days before.

In addition to the illegal obtaining and leaking of the documents, Feldstein is also reportedly being investigated for tampering with the document before it was leaked.

The investigation into the leaked information is being run by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

Another investigation led by the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit is ongoing, reportedly regarding allegations of members of the Prime Minister’s Office tampering with official protocols of meetings and phone conversations during the hours leading up to the October 7 massacre and the hours after it.

The suspicion is that the goal of this alleged tampering was to minimize the prime minister’s involvement and thus his direct responsibility in the proceedings.

Prime Minister's office response

Netanyahu’s office said in response, “It hurts us very much that the lives of young people are being destroyed by idle claims meant to harm the right-wing government.

“In a democratic country, people are not arrested because of a leak for 20 days and held in dungeons while they are prevented from seeing a lawyer for many days – just to extract false statements from them against the prime minister.

“This abuse is all the more outrageous because there was not a single investigation into the flood of criminal leaks from the cabinet and the negotiating team during the entire year of the war.

“These criminal leaks revealed information to Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and caused great damage to Israel’s security and the effort to free the hostages,” it said.