A second police probe of his administration for alleged wrongdoings is an “unprecedented campaign against the Prime Minister’s Office in the midst of a war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated on Tuesday night.
“After a year in which there has been a flood of criminal leaks from security cabinet discussions and discussions regarding the hostages and the missing, which have provided our enemies with highly valuable intelligence, the only two investigations that have been opened are directed against the Prime Minister’s Office,” Netanyahu’s office said.
There have been no probes “against the wholesale leakers—none of which have been questioned—who have greatly damaged the hostages and the security of Israel,” Netanyahu’s office stated.
“As with the previous attempts to inflate accusations against the prime minister and those around him, the present matter will also not yield anything whatsoever, but will certainly lead to difficult questions regarding arbitrary enforcement, which lacks both precedence and foundation,” it added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israel Police announced that its Lahav 433 unit, which investigates public corruption and organized crime, launched a probe “related to events from the beginning of the war, during which several investigative actions were conducted openly.”
The Magistrate Court in Rishon Letzion issued a gag order banning the publication of additional details.
Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported that the latest investigation concerns suspected attempts by officials in Netanyahu’s office to alter official transcripts of cabinet discussions and other government meetings.
On Sunday, an Israeli court lifted a gag order on the identity of a suspect in the case concerning the alleged leaking by the Prime Minister’s Office of classified documents concerning hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman for military affairs in Netanyahu’s office, is suspected of leaking documents obtained by the Israel Defense Forces which suggest that the terrorist group is not interested in a ceasefire deal and is only using truce talks to increase domestic pressure on the government.
In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that the premier had only “learned about the document from the media.” It added that Feldstein—whom it didn’t name—was never exposed to classified material.
“The document only helped the effort to retrieve the hostages and certainly did not compromise it,” as it “exposed Hamas’s methods for applying psychological pressure domestically and abroad on the government and Israeli society, by blaming Israel for the failure of talks to retrieve the hostages, when everyone knows—as has been confirmed repeatedly by U.S. officials—that Hamas is preventing the deal,” Netanyahu’s office added.
Netanyahu’s critics have presented the affair as evidence that he is working to thwart a deal with Hamas for the release of the captives. His advocates have argued that the files prove no such deal was feasible, accusing police of selectively investigating while ignoring other leaks.
