Yonatan Urich, a close aide and media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was indicted on Thursday on charges related to the alleged leaking of classified information.
He was indicted on five counts, including providing classified information in circumstances prosecutors described as security-related and potentially punishable by life imprisonment. He is also accused of possessing classified material, destroying evidence and passing sensitive information to Israeli journalists and the German tabloid Bild.
The Central District Attorney’s Office filed an amended indictment with the Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday, replacing and expanding earlier charges, adding Urich as a central defendant alongside Eli Feldstein and reserve intelligence officer Ari Rosenfeld in what has become known as the “Bild affair.”
The case concerns a military intelligence document reportedly outlining Hamas’s position on hostage negotiations, which was leaked and published in Bild. The document, provided by Feldstein to Bild, became the basis of a Sept. 6, 2024, story in the newspaper, which reported that Hamas’s goal in hostage talks was to buy time to rebuild its military capabilities, “exhaust” Israel’s military and “exert psychological pressure” on the hostages’ families, who would, in turn, pressure the Israeli government.
The publication was later cited by supporters of the government as supporting Netanyahu’s position that military pressure, rather than diplomatic negotiations, would secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Feldstein told Channel 11 last year that his direct supervisor, Urich, who served as a strategic adviser to the prime minister, sent him a message that “the boss [Netanyahu] is satisfied.”
Prosecutors allege that the material was used in an effort to influence public opinion on political and military developments, including in the aftermath of the August 2024 killing of six Israeli hostages.
Thursday’s filing, approved by the Attorney General and State Attorney’s Office, also included a request for strict restrictions, including Urich’s full exclusion from the Prime Minister’s Office and any security facility.
Netanyahu’s office has denied the premier initiated the leak, saying he learned of the document from the media. Netanyahu has accused Israel’s security services of selective enforcement, pointing to numerous leaks that had not been investigated at that time.
The prime minister also questioned why he hadn’t been given the document.
“This document should have been on my desk, I should have been making decisions based on this material, and I certainly should not have been excluded from it. And this is not the first time that I have been denied vital information,” he said on Nov. 22, 2025.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on TPS-IL.
