Israeli Prime Minister Staff Becomes Suspect Of Alleged Leaks Of Secret Documents

Illustration. (Piaxabay/TayebMEZAHDIA)

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office, Rishon Letzion, revoked the arrest order to name the main suspect in the alleged leak of classified documents from inside the Prime Minister's Office.

The suspect named Eli Feldstein, who works at the Prime Minister's Office. Previously, he was a spokesman for the office of Otzma Leader Hatadit Itamar Ben Gvir, as reported by The Times of Israel November 4.

"Undisclosed and sensitive intelligence information was taken from the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) system and taken out illegally," said the decision of the Rishon Le-Zion Court on Sunday, which may have led to "serious damage to state security and pose a risk to information sources"., as quoted by Reuters.

In that case, the court said the leak could undermine efforts to free the hostages.

PM Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing by his office staff and said in a statement on Saturday he had just learned of the leaked documents from the media.

Feldstein, who was detained by the court for two days, allegedly illegally acquired access to IDF's classified material, which then leaked it to foreign media.

The leaked document is said to have been the basis of an widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish CHronicle which was later withdrawn, which states Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar plans to take the hostages out of Gaza through Egypt, and an article in the German Bild newspaper that says Hamas is stalling ceasefire talks as a form of psychological war against Israel.

Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about the article which appeared to support Netanyahu's demands in negotiations and freed him of a mistake for his failure when the article emerged in early September.

Feldstein reportedly started working at the Prime Minister's Office in October 2023, shortly after Hamas' attack on southern Israel.

In total, the court said four suspects were being investigated in the case, which began amid security agencies' concerns that leaked sensitive information would jeopardize the country's security and source of information.

The court said there were concerns the investigation could be disrupted if the gag order was fully lifted at this time.