Eliezer Feldstein, a spokesman for military affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, accused of endangering national security by passing leaked military documents to the prime minister, was ordered released from prison to house arrest by Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday.
A second key suspect, a noncommissioned officer in the Military Intelligence Directorate identified by the initial “A.” and accused of passing the documents to Feldstein, will remain imprisoned pending a separate decision in his case.
The court’s decision was a response to an appeal by the State Attorney’s Office after the Tel Aviv District Court ordered Feldstein and the noncommissioned officer released to house arrest on Dec. 3.
The district court judge cited “evidentiary weaknesses” regarding the state’s charge that the pair endangered state security.
Lawyers representing the NCO said their client’s “continued detention constitutes a huge injustice that we will act to correct as soon as possible.”
Justice Alex Stein said of the NCO, “The defendant saw and continues to see himself as an ‘independent contractor’ of the Intelligence Corps, who, when necessary, is entitled to take the reins and establish direct communication channels between himself and government officials in ways he sees fit, while completely abolishing the IDF chain of command and information security procedures.”
His lawyers said in response, “A. gave information exclusively to the prime minister, and this is because of the war and to help its goals. The claim regarding the imagined fear that A. will continue to pass on intelligence information to others lacks all logic and is contrary to the evidence.”
On Nov. 21, Feldstein was indicted for providing secret information with the intention of damaging state security, an offense carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The NCO was charged with five counts of providing confidential information, obstruction of justice and theft.
The basis of a ‘Bild’ story
Feldstein is accused of leaking a classified document to German newspaper Bild, in an effort to reduce public criticism directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the IDF discovered the bodies of six hostages murdered by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in late August.
That document became the basis of a Sept. 6 Bild story saying Hamas wasn’t interested in a hostages-for-ceasefire deal, but wanted to drag out talks to gain time to rebuild its military capabilities, exhaust Israel’s military, and “exert psychological pressure” on the hostages’ families and consequently the Israeli government.
Bild said the document, dating from spring 2024, was found on a computer said to belong to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, “who personally approved the content.” Israeli military sources later disputed that, saying the document was on a computer belonging to a mid-level Hamas commander.
Netanyahu referred to the Bild story in a Sept. 8 Cabinet meeting, saying it revealed that Hamas planned “to tear us apart from within” but “the great majority of Israel’s citizens are not falling into this Hamas trap.”
Opponents of the prime minister, including some hostages’ families, accused Netanyahu of purposely leaking the document to torpedo a hostages-for-ceasefire deal so as to pursue his war aims and his political survival.
Netanyahu’s office argued that the document’s release didn’t compromise the effort to free the hostages but helped it by exposing Hamas’s methods of applying psychological pressure by blaming Israel for the failure of talks, “when everyone knows—as has been confirmed repeatedly by U.S. officials—that Hamas is preventing the deal.”
Netanyahu’s office also denied the premier initiated the alleged leak, saying he learned of it from the media. His office has defended Feldstein, though without naming him, saying the suspect had never been exposed to classified material.
The Prime Minister’s Office has sharply criticized the investigation, noting that dozens of leaks have poured out of hostage negotiations and Cabinet meetings, and yet only the one implicating the PMO is being investigated.
Critics who have taken the prime minister’s side have questioned why the documents were held back from the PMO to begin with.
They have also attacked Feldstein’s treatment by the authorities, as well as the treatment of the four others who were arrested as part of the investigation.
Feldstein was held for three weeks before being charged.
In response to the case, coalition members introduced a bill, dubbed the “Feldstein Law,” to protect from prosecution members of the defense establishment who without authorization pass classified information to the prime minister or defense minister.
The proposed law passed its preliminary reading by a vote of 59-52 on Dec. 4.