Report: Probe into doctored PM’s office protocols centers on signs of Hamas attack
Senior official allegedly ordered clerk to adjust transcripts, ostensibly to create impression premier was less aware of indications of a potential assault; PMO denies report
Amid the ongoing probe into allegations that senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office sought to alter protocols from security meetings, a new report says at least some of the ostensible changes had to do with how much knowledge the premier had of the potential for a Hamas attack immediately before the October 7, 2023, massacre took place.
The allegation that senior officials tried to blackmail an IDF officer in the PMO to get him to change records of meetings is one of several scandals swirling around the PMO in recent weeks.
The IDF said earlier this year that “several indicative signs accumulated” in the hours before the Oct. 7 onslaught, which security chiefs missed, which included the activation of dozens of SIM cards, in the hours before the attack, that security services knew could be used by terrorists in a potential raid on Israeli communities. However, the cards had been activated in the past as part of Hamas exercises and maintenance, and so the matter was noted but did not immediately put the military on high alert.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that he was only told about the SIM cards after the attack had begun.
Citing officials familiar with the details, Ynet reported Monday that law enforcement is checking whether senior officials in the PMO attempted to alter protocols to create the impression that the premier was less informed on the matter of the SIM cards than he actually was.
The report says Col. “Shin,” an IDF officer at the PMO identified only by his initial, received an update hours before the attack about Hamas units in both northern and southern Gaza activating SIM cards. It says investigators suspect the colonel was later blackmailed by a top official — who supposedly possessed a “sensitive” video of the officer — to later change protocols related to the SIM cards.
Separately, according to Ynet, months after October 7, Avi Gil, who was Netanyahu’s military secretary at the time, was surprised to find during a review of transcripts and logs from that night that key details had been altered.
When Gil questioned the clerk who had prepared the record about the incident, she explained that she had made the changes on the orders of a senior official in the bureau. She added that she couldn’t refuse his instructions for fear of the consequences.
Netanyahu’s office firmly denied the latest report, calling it “another complete fabrication that is also part of an unprecedented media witch hunt against the Prime Minister’s Office during wartime, designed to whitewash the serious failures of others on the night of October 7.”
Several Netanyahu aides have in recent weeks faced accusations including mishandling and leaking classified documents to the press; editing meeting transcripts; and blackmailing a senior military officer.
Tzachi Braverman, who serves as Netanyahu’s chief of staff, has been reported by Hebrew media to be the official suspected of blackmailing a military secretariat officer with “sensitive footage” in order to persuade him to change protocols from the night of October 6-7, 2023 — the hours before the devastating Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Braverman’s name was first reported by the Kan public broadcaster, which also stated that the video in question had been obtained from security cameras in the Prime Minister’s Office and that other PMO employees had been allowed to watch the recording.
In a statement, Braverman denied any such activity and threatened legal action if Kan did not remove the article. He also demanded a public apology, and NIS 100,000 (approximately $26,700) in damages over its publication.
The Kan report was still up on the outlet’s website on Monday.
The reports about Braverman came in the wake of several others that said a complaint had been filed several months ago with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi claiming that the PMO was holding and making inappropriate use of sensitive footage of an IDF officer.
An unnamed official in Netanyahu’s circle reportedly told Halevi that the officer was in an inappropriate relationship with a female worker in the PMO, though an army probe determined the relationship was not an abuse of power.
Four IDF servicemembers and a spokesman working with Netanyahu, Eli Feldstein, have been detained as part of a separate investigation into the theft of top-secret army intelligence documents, at least one of which was leaked to the foreign press, possibly for political gain. The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court said last week that the leak harmed attempts to secure a deal to bring home hostages held by Hamas.
