Report: Netanyahu aide Urich received payments from Qatar after war broke out
Channel 13 report says police hold documents, text messages and bank data linking Jonatan Urich to Doha from period when Israel was weighing Qatari offers to mediate for hostages
Jonatan Urich, the senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, received payments from Qatar dating back to just after war broke out between Israel and the Hamas terror group on October 7, 2023, Hebrew media reported Friday, marking the latest development in the “Qatargate” affair.
While Urich initially denied any involvement with the Qataris and said the investigation was politically motivated, he later admitted to assisting Qatar with matters related to the 2022 World Cup. Sources told Channel 12 news that the latest findings have rendered Urich the main suspect in the Qatargate investigation.
According to Channel 13 news, the police possess documents, text messages, and bank data showing that Urich received payments from Doha after October 7, 2023, when Israel was determining whether to accept the Qataris as mediators in negotiations with Hamas. Payments that could be traced back to Qatar continued to be made to Urich throughout 2024, the Channel 13 report said.
Qatar has been a key mediator, along with Egypt and the US, in Gaza hostage-ceasefire negotiations. In recent years it also sent vast amounts of money, including hundreds of millions of dollars in cash delivered with the support of Netanyahu, into Gaza — funds that IDF and Shin Bet probes have said helped finance Hamas’s war machine and the terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.
Police are reportedly trying to determine whether Urich indeed advanced Qatari interests and whether he received assistance from a second suspect, former Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein, who has already been charged with leaking classified information in a separate case. Police are also investigating the possibility that Feldstein worked with Qatar independently of Urich.
The Qatargate affair has revolved primarily around suspicions that Urich and Feldstein committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for the pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.
On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a decision to keep Urich in custody. Justice Yechiel Kasher stated in his ruling, “I am satisfied that there was no miscarriage of justice in the district court’s decision.”
At the session, Urich’s lawyers appeared to admit that their client had worked for Qatar, stating that charges against him were invalid since it is not officially an enemy state.
In their appeal, Urich’s lawyers claimed that the district court “made a mistake in defining the offense,” adding that Qatar isn’t defined by Israeli law as an enemy country and arguing that “many officials in Israel, including very senior defense officials,” regularly work with the Gulf nation.
They also argued that Urich, as a private individual providing services to the premier’s Likud party rather than a state-employed official, “is allowed to concurrently work in any role.”
Urich had been brought in for questioning on Wednesday afternoon regarding new evidence the police wished to ask him about, and was arrested just after midnight.
Police sought to extend his detention by five days and extend Feldstein’s house arrest by 30 days, but a judge refused both requests and granted police 24 hours to file an appeal against his decision.
The judge also raised substantive questions over the investigation, pointing out that although Urich and Feldstein were working for the prime minister, they were not formally employed by the Prime Minister’s Office and were therefore not civil servants.
Only civil servants can be charged with crimes, such as bribery and breach of trust, which police wish to level against the two suspects.
The ongoing investigation continues to expand, and the Shin Bet and police are now probing the involvement and business connections of two former security officials with Qatar, Hebrew media outlets reported Thursday.
According to Haaretz, the two former Mossad agents were recently questioned by the Shin Bet, and the police sought to question further suspects in connection with the affair.
One of the former security officials under investigation is a former Mossad official, referred to only as “Shin,” who worked in cooperation with Qatari intelligence during his time at the spy agency and today does business in Qatar, Channel 12 news reported.
The second suspect was said to be David Saig, an Israeli businessman, a former Mossad official and a close friend of Shin, who was Saig’s boss during their time in the Mossad.
Saig himself has been questioned under caution as a suspect in the Qatargate investigation.
According to Channel 12, Shin owns a company with retired IDF general Yoav Mordechai, who formed connections with the Qataris during his time as head of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Police suspect that Mordechai connected two of the central suspects in the Qatargate affair, Urich and former Likud election campaign manager Yisrael Einhorn, to the Qatari government when they did public relations work for Doha ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Urich and Einhorn are also suspected of having a business relationship with Shin and Saig, said Channel 12.
The report further said that Shin and Mordechai’s company has a relationship with a German company owned by Gil Birger, another Israeli businessman suspected of having transferred money from pro-Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik to Feldstein.
The Times of Israel Community.