Eli Feldstein of the Israeli Prime Minister’s office of Benjamin Netanyahu was identified as the main suspect in the “serious security leaks case.”
In a ruling by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court Judge Menahem Mizrahi, Feldstein, a Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson, was suspected of revealing top-secret information with national security ramifications to the European press.
Three others remain under a court-imposed gag order on their identities, but it was allowed to be confirmed that they come from within the defence establishment.
The court explained that “the investigation started after high suspicions accumulated in the Shin Bet and IDF, among other things due to media publications, that secret and sensitive intelligence information was taken from the IDF and removed in contravention of the law, raising concerns of serious harm to national security and a danger to the sources of the information.”. Resultantly, it might have caused damage to the capability of the defence bodies to achieve its goal of freeing the hostages kept in Gaza.”
Netanyahu tried to avoid this case, stating that no one from his office was arrested or being investigated.
The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle, suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt.
