‘Let them burn’: PM’s aides said to slam IDF on Oct. 7 for being slow to release photos

Senior advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly suggested the IDF should “burn” for not releasing images of fighting fast enough the morning of October 7. They also met at a luxury villa days after the Hamas massacre to strategize on media messaging and later sought to sow dissent between the defense minister and the IDF chief.

Text messages between top Netanyahu aides Topaz Luk, Eli Feldstein and Jonatan Urich have been reportedly leaked from the ongoing police investigation into the two latter officials for their involvement in the Qatargate and Bild leak scandals.

The exchanges, concerned with the prime minister’s appearance and messaging as fighting against invading terrorists was still raging in southern Israel, sparked sharp rebukes in recent days from a number of bereaved families.

The i24news TV network first reported last week on a number of the messages, including Feldstein texting Luk the morning of October 7 that Netanyahu should appear “without a jacket and tie — in combat mode.”

The Channel 13 TV network reported Sunday that Feldstein messaged Luk before noon on the day of the massacre that the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit “should already release photos of soldiers in the field, including helicopters.” Luk responded that he has been working on it, and Feldstein replied: “Let them burn, the scum.”

In response, Eyal Eshel, the father of slain surveillance soldier Sgt. Roni Eshel, wrote Monday: “Yes Eli Feldstein and Topaz Luk, they burned.”

“Roni and her friends were burned 20 minutes after you wished for the IDF to burn,” he wrote on X. “They burned in the inferno while those who were supposed to protect them never came. The last problem that morning was the lack of PR photos.”

i24news also reported that just days later, on October 12, Feldstein wrote to Luk ahead of a meeting on strategy: “We’ll sit at my friend’s villa by the pool. I’m on the way there with food.”

Shelly Meshel-Yogev, the mother of Libby Cohen-Meguri, who was murdered while fleeing the Nova music festival, said the reported messages “made me nauseated.”

“On October 12, 2023, we started to sit shiva for our daughter,” she wrote. “While that was happening, Bibi’s advisers were comfortably sitting in a villa by the pool, ordering food, while our lives — and the lives of thousands of families — were shattered.”

Other bereaved families said that they were still waiting for news on that day, or were burying those they had lost.

Menashe Manzuri, whose daughters Roya and Norelle were murdered at the Nova festival, said that as the prime minister’s advisers were meeting at the pool, his family had been informed of the death of one child and still had no news of the second.

“Five days later… We were notified about Roya at 8:30. And we still had no news about Norelle. Days of Hell. And they were sitting by the pool,” Manzuri said.

The TV network also reported on texts from November 2023 between Urich and Feldstein ahead of Netanyahu sitting down with a number of families of hostages held in Hamas.

“I would brief the prime minister with information about at least some of the families who have also lost loved ones,” Feldstein wrote to Urich ahead of the meeting. “It will make it look like he cares, that he knows and is interested and isn’t only hearing everything from them.”

i24news also reported messages from June 2024 about an attempt to sow division between then-defense minister Yoav Gallant and then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi.

Feldstein reportedly wrote to Urich a version of a question fed to a journalist to ask about reported meetings between Gallant and Eyal Zamir, who was later tapped as the next IDF chief. It is not clear who the journalist was and who the question was intended to be posed to.

According to the TV network, Feldstein wrote to Urich: “The report has one purpose — to drive a wedge between Herzi and Gallant.” Urich responded: “Got it.”

Channel 13 news reported that the messages are among thousands held by police and state prosecutors between Urich and Feldstein, who have both been indicted in the Bild leaked documents case and are both key suspects in the ongoing Qatargate investigation.

In the Qatargate affair, Urich and Feldstein are suspected of taking money to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters, in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, while in the prime minister’s employ.

In the Bild affair, Feldstein has admitted to leaking classified information to the German news outlet as part of an alleged scheme to sway public opinion and ease pressure on Jerusalem to reach a deal with Hamas, and Urich was also indicted for his alleged role in the leak. Urich has since been cleared to return to work in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The leaked messages are also of note as the Prime Minister’s Office repeatedly sought to portray Feldstein as largely uninvolved in day-to-day operations after he was first implicated in leaking classified information in 2024.