Former Ben Gvir aide and IDF spokesperson reportedly worked closely with Prime Minister’s Office despite failing security clearance; identities of 3 other suspects still under wraps
A court partially lifted a gag order Sunday on a case surrounding suspected leaks of classified information by an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unsealing the name of the central suspect and several other details.
Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson working with the Prime Minister’s Office, is accused of divulging top-secret information with national security implications to European media outlets, according to a ruling published Sunday evening by Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court head Menahem Mizrahi.
The names of three other suspects remain gagged by the court, but it confirmed that they were connected to the defense establishment.
“The investigation began after significant suspicions arose in the Shin Bet and IDF — including as a result of media publications — that secret and sensitive intelligence information was taken from the IDF and removed illegally, sparking concerns of serious harm to national security and a danger to the sources of the information,” the court noted. “As a result, damage could have been done to the ability of defense bodies to achieve the goal of freeing the hostages [held in Gaza].”
In recent days Netanyahu had sought to distance himself from the case, claimed no one from his office was arrested or was under investigation, and pushing back against critics who claimed the leaks had been politically expedient for him. The premier had downplayed the affair and had publicly called for the gag order to be lifted.
According to multiple outlets, however, Feldstein had functioned as a PMO employee in all but name over the past year, and was frequently in the premier’s close orbit. He is seen beside Netanyahu in various photos over the past year. Kan news reported that Feldstein was technically working for the PMO’s director-general and not the office itself due to failing a polygraph test, which made him ineligible for the security clearance required to work at the PMO, but was in close contact with the premier regardless.
The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt; as well as an article in Germany’s Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out hostage talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about those articles, which appeared to serve Netanyahu’s demands in the talks and to absolve him of blame for their failure.
The case first became public on Friday, four days after Feldstein was arrested in an early morning police raid. He was remanded in custody until Tuesday at least, when another hearing is scheduled.
Ynet reported that investigators are examining four separate issues in the case: the leaking of top-secret documents; allowing an adviser without security clearance to access meetings and premises that should have been off-limits to him; negligence in the handling of classified documents; and the use of documents to influence public opinion on a hostage deal.
Some of the suspects in the ongoing investigation could face up to 15 years in prison, Ynet said, citing an official familiar with the details.
Feldstein, 32, had been an officer in the military’s spokesperson unit, serving as spokesman for the religious Netzah Yehuda battalion and for the army’s West Bank Division. He was at one point an operations officer within the IDF Spokesman’s unit, winning plaudits as the first Orthodox person in the role, according to the Ynet news site.
Following his discharge from the military, the Bnei Brak native briefly worked as a spokesperson for Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir, who is now national security minister.
On Saturday, the PMO did not deny allegations that a document was leaked from Netanyahu’s office, but sought to distance the premier himself from the episode. It claimed that the spokesperson “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or receive classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”
“The published document never came to the Prime Minister’s Office from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and the prime minister learned about it from the media,” the PMO asserted.
On September 6, Germany’s Bild outlet published a report that cited a document captured in Gaza indicating that Hamas’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel was to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. The spring 2024 document, which Bild said it had obtained exclusively, without offering further details. It said the document was found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The IDF launched a probe into the information leak at the time and said that the document was found in Gaza some five months ago, and was not written by Sinwar but was rather a recommendation paper drawn up by a mid-level Hamas officer.
The PMO called it “ridiculous” to allege that a sympathetic article in Bild “caused any damage to the negotiations for the release of the hostages, or to the security of Israel.”
Regarding a debunked September 5 Jewish Chronicle article “Sinwar’s secret plan to ‘smuggle hostages to Iran’” — which alleged that a document had been uncovered in the Gaza Strip proving that Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself and some of the hostages out of Gaza and from there to Iran — the IDF said it was unaware of any such document actually existing.
The Jewish Chronicle announced in mid-September that it had fired the writer who penned that articles and other, amid doubts about their veracity, and had removed his stories from its website.
Responding to the lifting of the gag order, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charged that Netanyahu was either too incompetent to lead Israel during wartime or was “complicit in one of the most serious security offenses.”
“Netanyahu’s defense is that he has no influence or control over the bodies he leads. If that’s true, he’s ineligible, he’s not qualified to lead the State of Israel in the most difficult war in its history,” Lapid declared, calling for the probe to include an investigation of whether Netanyahu had ordered the leaks.
And “if he did not know that his close aides were stealing documents, operating spies within the IDF, forging documents, exposing intelligence sources and passing secret documents to foreign newspapers in order to stop the hostage deal, then what does he know?” he asked.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, a former member of the war cabinet, said the affair was “proof” of his earlier claims that political considerations were harming security deliberations.
“Contrary to the impression they are trying to create in the Prime Minister’s Office, this is not suspicion of a leak, but of state secrets being profiteered for for political purposes,” he said, speaking alongside Lapid. “If sensitive security information is stolen and becomes a tool in a political survival campaign, this is not only a criminal offense, it is a national crime.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement saying the information revealed in the case “indicates that those close to the prime minister acted in a manner that endangers national security in an attempt to thwart the return of the hostages.
“The suspicions indicate that individuals affiliated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the largest efforts to at engineering a narrative in the country’s history. A government that abandoned citizens who became victims of brutal kidnappings is effectively working to slander them and to sway public opinion against the duty to return them — as though they were enemies of the nation.
On Instagram, Feldstein’s sister said he had been in Shin Bet custody for a week, describing her brother as a hard worker with a “pure heart.”
A source close to Feldstein told Channel 12 earlier that he had been sold out by the premier.
“He worked for Netanyahu and was an adviser to him over the past year and a half. He has dedicated his life to the prime minister and would endanger himself for him. The moment [the scandal] erupted, Netanyahu threw him under the bus and is even lying, saying he doesn’t work for him,” the source said.
As reported by The Times of Israel