A former spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Eliezer Feldstein, has been arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents that could have undermined Gaza hostage negotiations. Feldstein, along with three others, was detained on Monday over the leak of “classified and sensitive intelligence information.” According to an Israeli court, the release of these documents posed a significant threat to state security, particularly affecting the security services’ ability to achieve the goal of releasing hostages, which was part of Israel’s broader war objectives.
The leak was initially uncovered in September after two newspapers—The Jewish Chronicle (UK) and Bild (Germany)—published articles based on the leaked military documents. One of the documents, claimed to have been found, suggested a plan for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (who was later killed by Israel) to smuggle hostages from Gaza to Egypt via the Philadelphi Corridor. Another document was allegedly an internal Hamas memo detailing Sinwar’s strategy to disrupt negotiations for the hostages’ release. However, the first document was later found to be fake, and the internal memo was actually written by lower-ranking Hamas militants.
The investigation, led by Israel’s domestic security agency and the army, is ongoing. Opposition leaders, such as Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, have suggested that Netanyahu may have been complicit in the leak, with Lapid calling it a “serious security affair” originating in the Prime Minister’s office. Netanyahu has denied the allegations, asserting that the document published by Bild never reached his office and that Feldstein had never participated in security meetings or had access to classified documents.
