Netanyahu’s office scandals: Recruiting army ‘spies’, blackmailing officer to obtain secret documents

Informed sources revealed to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office may be involved in intimidating and blackmailing an army officer to obtain top secret documents.

The involvement of two senior officials in Netanyahu’s office in obtaining and publishing sensitive materials from surveillance cameras related to a senior army officer is being investigated.

According to the sources, investigations are underway to determine whether this is another incident in which senior officials ignored procedures, instructed subordinates to act against the rules and violated basic information security and privacy protection principles.

The sources shared: “Spies were recruited by Netanyahu’s office in the Israeli army to steal top secret documents and transfer them to the office, followed by forged publication in the media to serve the narrative against the hostage deal.”

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According to the sources, this may explain how the officials gained access to some of the most sensitive documents and records.

The newspaper revealed that two senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office were found to have embarrassing personal documents pertaining to a senior officer in the Israeli army. It noted that the former spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Eliezer Feldstein, who is suspected of involvement in leaking secret documents to the press, had previously been dismissed from the Israeli army during his reserve service at the beginning of the Gaza war.

According to the report, Feldstein, who was arrested along with three other people, including members of the security services, was appointed to the position of Netanyahu’s official spokesperson for military and security affairs after the 7 October attack, a position that did not exist before.

The Israeli court stated that publishing these documents would cause “serious harm to state security” and may have affected the security services’ ability to return the hostages, which is one of the war’s stated objectives.

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