From the Liveblog of
Sunday, July 13, 2025
AG considering indicting top Netanyahu aide, Jonatan Urich, in leaked documents scandal
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is considering indicting Jonatan Urich, a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the leaked documents affair, subject to a hearing.
The State Attorney’s Office told Urich of the possibility that he will be indicted today, saying that, if prosecuted, he would be charged with security offenses including transmitting classified information with the intent to harm state security, possession of classified information and destroying evidence.
The State Attorney’s Office believes that Urich, together with Eli Feldstein, a former military spokesman for Netanyahu, worked to extract raw, classified, information from the IDF military intelligence system.
“This was information classified at the highest possible level which was obtained through secret intelligence means which Urich, by exposing it, may have endangered state security and lives,” the Attorney General’s Office says in a statement to the press.
“The release of classified information by Urich and Feldstein was intended, among other things, to influence public opinion regarding the prime minister, and to shift the discourse at the time [away from] the murder of the six hostages in August 2024,” the statement adds.
The allegations against Urich and Feldstein are at the heart of a scandal at the Prime Minister’s Office, in which a highly classified document ostensibly detailing Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations was unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database and leaked to Germany’s Bild newspaper.
The affair centers around what prosecutors allege were Urich and Feldstein’s efforts to sway public opinion surrounding the negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a more favorable direction for Netanyahu, several days after six hostages were murdered by the terror group last August.
Urich is also a suspect in the Qatargate affair. He is suspected of bribery and breach of trust due to his role advising Netanyahu, while, according to the allegations against him, doing paid work to improve Qatar’s image in Israel at the same time, specifically regarding Doha’s role in the hostage negotiations.
The Times of Israel Community.