Police say they’re done with Qatargate probe, hand it over to state prosecutor

Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich, who is suspected along with 2 Prime Minister’s Office employees of doing PR for Qatari government during war, may be banned from PMO for 2 more months

The Israel Police on Sunday handed its investigation into the Qatargate scandal over to the State Attorney’s Office, saying it has completed the probe and recommending continued sanctions against the prime suspect.

The police requested a two-month extension of the restrictions on Jonatan Urich, a former top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including barring him from working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Urich, as well as Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, is accused of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and doing so while working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering in connection with the ongoing probe.

According to the Ynet news site, a decision from the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Urich’s detention conditions will be made Monday.

That court rejected the police’s last request to extend the restrictions, but the decision was overturned — and thus the restrictions extended — by a higher court in Lod.

Jonatan Urich (C) seen after a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Qatargate affair is one of several scandals roiling the PMO, alongside the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in summer 2024 allegedly to influence Israeli public opinion about hostage negotiations with Hamas. That affair also involves Urich, Feldstein, and Einhorn.

Netanyahu has received wide backlash over his connection to the Qatar affair – though he denies any knowledge of the PR work by people under his charge. A recent poll found that half of Israelis, including 30% of those who voted for the governing coalition, believe working for Qatar while working in the PMO should be considered an act of treason.

Ex-premier Naftali Bennett, considered Netanyahu’s most significant challenger in the election later this year, has said those involved deserve life in prison for having served an “enemy” in wartime, and opposition leaders have denounced the premier over the scandal. At least four ministers in the government have also condemned those involved.