A mother whose child is being held by Hamas hostage in Gaza has accused Israel of “a cynical, deceptive operation that is taken directly from dark regimes” after it was revealed that a government spokesperson was arrested for allegedly leaking information that could have undermined an agreement on a ceasefire or the release of hostages.
The news came after a Rishon LeZion court said Eli Feldstein, along with three other people, were being investigated for leaking stories to European papers.
Israel Defense Forces Radio (IDF) reported that a fifth arrest was made in connection with this investigation. The major is said to be in the military’s Intelligence Branch Information Security Department, which is tasked with investigating and preventing leaks. The Haaretz newspaper reported that all the unnamed suspects came from this unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that his staff had done anything wrong, but opposition figures as well as the families of hostages have accused his government to sabotage negotiations.
The stories given to Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, and Germany’s tabloid Bild were based on partial and false information, and came at an important time for hostage negotiation.
Einav Zangauker said that the stories “supported Netanyahu’s propaganda lies” to torpedo this deal. He was speaking at a Tel Aviv protest. His son Matan, who has been held hostage by Hamas since over a year now, is the father of Matan.
Documents claimed that Hamas planned to smuggle Israelis into Egypt in order to undermine any proposed ceasefire agreement.
Some commentators claim that the revelations are politically useful to Netanyahu’s hardline stance on the talks which have made little progress.
More than 100 of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas in 2023 on 7th October are still unaccounted for.
After the stories were published, the IDF launched a probe to find out the source of the leaks.
This led to Eli Feldstein’s arrest, along with three other people whose identities were not revealed.
Mr Feldstein was a government spokeswoman and accompanied the prime minister to many visits. He worked as a spokesperson for the far right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and before that, he was an IDF.
Two leading opposition politicians held an official press conference following the news of his arrest.
Benny Gantz who was in Netanyahu’s War Cabinet until recently said that using sensitive security information for a political survival campaign would not only be criminal, but also “a crime against nation”.
Yair Lapid said, speaking at the same event, that if the Prime Minister knew about the leaks “he is complicit” in one of the worst security offences and that if he did not know, he was unfit for office.
Families of the hostages have also been very critical of the government for failing to secure their release.
They called it “a moral low with no depth.” This is a grave injury to the trust between the government, and its citizens.”
The documents were published by European newspapers to circumvent the military censorship laws of Israel.
The Jewish Chronicle (JC), which published stories based on a lone anonymous source, was engulfed by a scandal. The freelance writer responsible for the articles was fired and the articles were eventually taken down.
The articles claimed that the late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza last week, was surrounded by about 20 hostages and that plans were discovered to smuggle Sinwar and his captives into Egypt. Leading Israeli security journalists questioned whether the reports were true.
Several high-profile writers quit the newspaper, accusing it lacking journalistic standards.
Jonathan Freedland and Hadley Freeman quit their columns at the oldest Jewish newspaper in the world. Freedland called it a “great shame”.
The JC stated that it had conducted a “thorough inquiry” into Elon Perry, one of its freelancer journalists, “after allegations about his record were made”.
It said that it was “not happy” with the writer’s claims and had therefore deleted his articles.
Elon Perry said to BBC News that the JC made a “huge mistake” with its statement. He said he couldn’t reveal his source to JC Editors and described a ‘witch-hunt’ against him caused by jealousy.
Bild articles were based on different intelligence documents. Ronan Bergman, a leading security journalist, found that the documents were authentic but their significance was greatly exaggerated.
The publication of this article triggered an investigation by the IDF, and the security services. This led to the arrests.
Few people in Israel believe that the scandal will be fatal to Netanyahu’s premiership, despite the harsh criticism he faces. He is already facing several court cases for bribery and fraud, which he denies. Yet he remains in power with a coalition of religious and far-right parties.
Anshel pfeffer, Haaretz’s leading commentator, says: “It’s hard to say that they’ve thrown this charge against the Prime Minister yet, and it’s going to bring him down.”
He said that there was no sign that the government was collapsing. “Their line was that he was the victim of a cabal made up of lawyers and journalists. Now they are adding the security establishment who they claim are out to get them.”
Netanyahu has distanced himself from the allegations by claiming that the arrested spokesperson never had access classified information.
This scandal is growing and has further strained the already strained relationship between the government, the hostage families, and the media.
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