Families of Gaza captives fume over word choice; PM questioned on his employment of Feldstein along with Urich’s ties to Doha; Premier: ‘After an hour, they ran out of questions’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused police of holding two aides “hostage” Monday after they were arrested over their alleged engagement in illicit ties with Qatar while working for the premier.
Critics pounced on the premier for using the phrase “held hostage” to describe the arrest of Qatargate suspects Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, while 59 Israelis are actually being held hostage in Gaza. Twenty-four of those captives are believed to still be alive.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the majority of the Gaza hostages’ families, said in a statement that they are “angry and hurt by the prime minister’s unfortunate choice of words.”
“Netanyahu, you are confused. So let’s remind you the real hostages are our 59 brothers and sisters who have been held in Gaza for 542 days. You would be better off taking your time and addressing us, the families of real people being held hostage,” the forum added.
The premier made the comments in a video he posted on social media shortly after he finished being questioned by police regarding the Qatargate investigation.
In it, he claimed that investigators were grasping at straws, with no actual evidence against his top aides Urich and Feldstein, amid swirling suspicions that the two received money from Qatar for public relations work while also being in Netanyahu’s employ.
“I understood beforehand that this was a political investigation, but I did not realize the extent to which that is the case,” Netanyahu said in the video. “They are holding Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein as hostages, embittering their lives [for] on nothing.”
Police grilled Urich and Feldstein as suspects in the case Monday morning and later took them into custody. The pair were set to be brought to the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday where police will request to extend their detentions, Hebrew media reported Monday evening.
The joint police and Shin Bet probe was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman, Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for an international firm contracted by Qatar to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories all while employed in the Prime Minister’s Office. For his part, Urich is suspected of having a role in a convoluted chain of business figures and other officials involved in transferring payments from Doha to cover up their origin.
Netanyahu — who left his own criminal trial in Tel Aviv to meet Qatargate investigators at his office for questioning, though not as a suspect — claimed in the Monday video that he had cleared his schedule once police asked to speak with him, even though they only ended up needing a fraction of the four hours allotted.
“After an hour, they ran out of questions,” Netanyahu said. “I told them, ‘Show me proof, show me something,’ but they had nothing to show.”
According to the Kan public broadcaster, however, police asked Netanyahu how Feldstein was being paid for his work in the Prime Minister’s Office and whether he was aware that Feldstein was receiving money from Qatar as well. The premier was also asked about Urich’s ties to Qatar.
In the subsequent social media video, Netanyahu branded the investigation a “political witch hunt,” alleging that it was only designed to oust him from power and torpedo his attempts to remove Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who he claims no longer has the faith of the government due to his conduct surrounding the October 7 attack and subsequent investigations into the massacre.
The comments echoed previous claims Netanyahu has made against investigations into criminal allegations that extend deep into his inner circle and himself, including three cases in which he has been charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a separate statement dismissing the allegations against Netanyahu’s aides as being trumped up and accusing authorities of attempting to blackmail Urich into turning state’s witness against the premier by keeping him in jail.
Channel 12 reported that this possibility is what drove Netanyahu to quickly come in for questioning on Monday, given that several of his previous aides have turned state’s witness against him in his ongoing corruption trial.
This is “another criminal act by a frightened judicial clique,” Likud charged.
Among those to lash out at Netanyahu for describing Feldstein and Urich as hostages was National Unity party head Benny Gantz.
“Our hostages, who were kidnapped on your watch — they are not those who worked with Qatar during the war and were detained for one day for interrogation, but people who have been languishing with the enemy in the tunnels for 542 days,” Gantz stated.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid noted that the Likud statement slamming the investigation did not actually contain a denial of the suspicions against Netanyahu’s associates.
“Of all the criminal security scandals in the Prime Minister’s Office, this is not only the most serious but also the most dangerous,” he said.
During Netanyahu’s own trial earlier Monday morning, the premier’s attorney Amit Hadad left the Tel Aviv courthouse to assist Urich and Feldstein, both of whom are also his clients.
Hadad asked the court to cancel Netanyahu’s testimony planned for Tuesday in order to be present for Urich — a request that was reportedly accepted.
Aside from Urich and Feldstein, police also questioned a journalist as a possible suspect in the probe, though his name was kept sealed.
Hebrew media outlets reported that police suspect the unnamed reporter of contact with a foreign agent, but law enforcement did not issue an official statement on the matter.
While police initially planned to only question the reporter as a witness in the Qatargate probe, they ended up summoning him for questioning under caution after learning additional information regarding his involvement in the investigation, according to the Haaretz news site.
Before summoning and detaining Urich and Feldstein, police questioned an additional suspect — a businessman who landed in Israel on Monday morning. The suspect arrived immediately at the Lahav 433 major crimes unit in Lod for questioning at the police’s request, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
The unnamed businessman testified about what he knew regarding the transfer of funds from Qatar to Netanyahu’s aides. Urich and Feldstein were summoned immediately after his questioning concluded, Kan said.
Earlier this month, police questioned both Feldstein and Urich on suspicion of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering, and bribery. No further details were made available for publication due to a court-imposed gag order on the case.
The investigation focuses specifically on alleged Qatari payments to Netanyahu’s close circle between May 2022 and October 2024. It has been conducted largely under Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who is currently in the process of being fired by Netanyahu.
Opposition figures have accused Netanyahu of seeking to stymie the Qatar probe, while Bar himself alleged that the government is ousting him to thwart Shin Bet’s investigations.
Last November, it was reported that Urich and another Netanyahu aide Yisrael Einhorn did public relations work for Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup as part of the latter’s PR firm Perception, corresponding to the start date of the probe’s time frame.
Police have been seeking to question Einhorn, who now resides in Serbia as an adviser to the country’s President Aleksandar Vučić, as part of the investigation but have struggled due to his living abroad.
On Sunday, Hebrew news outlet Walla reported that Ariel Shafir, a close associate of Urich also formerly employed at Einhorn’s firm, arranged meetings between senior Israeli officials — including a government minister — Gulf-based Israeli businessman Gil Birger and pro-Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik.
Birger and Footlik gained national attention earlier this month after the Kan public broadcaster aired a recording of the former admitting to having transferred money from Footlik to Feldstein via a private company.
Shafir, who maintains close ties with the Likud party, formerly advised the ‘Bitchonistim’ movement, composed of former senior IDF officers who agree with Netanyahu’s security positions, Walla reported.
The revelation about Shafir’s role cast doubt on a claim made by Urich’s lawyers that their client “has no idea who Gil Birger is,” denying his involvement in the affair outright.
As reported by The Times of Israel