Gaza Crisis: Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu’s Aide Arrested
Amid the Gaza crisis, there are allegations that the Israeli prime minister’s office revealed a claim to foreign media bordering on intelligence on the crisis.
This is even as the Israeli Police have arrested the aide.
It was alleged that the Israel Prime Minister’s office promoted to foreign media the claim that Hamas was planning on smuggling hostages out of Gaza over the Egyptian border and creating divisions in Israeli society to pressure Netanyahu into a hostage release and ceasefire deal.
One of the persons being interrogated for leak of sensitive information is Eliezer Feldstein, who has been named by opposition politicians as an aide to Netanyahu.
He is among several people being interrogated over the leak of “classified and sensitive intelligence information,” according to court documents.
A court order made public on Sunday said that information taken from the Israeli military’s systems and “illegally issued” may have damaged Israel’s ability to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Although a spokesperson for Netanyahu denied that there have been leaks from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and that the “person in question never participated in security-related discussions,” in what looked like an apparently reference to Feldstein.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday accused the prime minister’s office of leaking “faked secret documents to torpedo the possibility of a hostage deal – to shape a public opinion influence operation against the hostages’ families.”
Families of hostages held in Gaza have accused Netanyahu of repeatedly thwarting an agreement with Hamas, believing that an end to the Gaza war would force the prime minister to hold elections. Netanyahu is alleged to have, in the past, torpedoed agreements with 11th hour demands – something he denies.
The crisis has continued to take different shapes and turns, with hope of ceasefire said to be small.
