Gag order on PMO leaks lifted: Key suspect said to have given classified info to ‘Bild’ to bypass censor; aimed to skew public opinion on hostage deal

Eli Feldstein, the central suspect in the security documents scandal in the Prime Minister’s Office, is suspected of having sought to influence public opinion regarding hostage negotiations by leaking a sensitive document to the Bild German newspaper in the wake of the murder by Hamas of six high-profile hostages in Gaza.

More details of the case can now be published following the lifting of a gag order on the case by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court.

Investigators believe that a non-commissioned office in the reserves unlawfully transferred a highly classified IDF intelligence document to Feldstein, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in June this year.

Following the murder of the hostages at the end of August, and major demonstrations pressing the government to try to seal a hostage-ceasefire deal, Feldstein then sought to have the document published in the Israeli press in September and leaked it to several Israeli journalists.

When the military censor blocked the publication of their reports due to the sensitivity of the material and its source, Feldstein sought to get it published in the foreign press, and updated Israeli journalists once it was published in the Bild in order to get them to write follow-up pieces.

It is reportedly suspected that Feldstein was seeking to influence political debate regarding the hostages by leaking the material to Bild ostensibly showing Hamas as unwilling to reach a hostage release deal in Gaza, aiming to have the Israeli public blame Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar, rather than Netanyahu, for the failure to secure a deal.

It is believed that the leak included extremely sensitive material, the publication of which was thought to potentially do severe damage to Israel’s security and the state.

Netanyahu is not a suspect in the case.