Senior Netanyahu aide Urich to be charged with security offenses over Bild leak

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara plans to file charges against Jonatan Urich, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused of leaking sensitive documents to a German tabloid in a bid to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with the Hamas terror group, her office said Thursday.

Urich, who is no longer officially employed by the Prime Minister’s Office but continues to frequent the location and work with Netanyahu, will face charges of transmitting classified information with the intention of harming state security, possession of classified information, and destruction of evidence, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The charges relate to Urich’s role in the leak of a classified document from IDF military intelligence to the Bild newspaper in September 2024 as part of an effort to buttress Netanyahu’s claim that it was Hamas, not the prime minister, that was holding up a deal for the release of the hostages held by the terror group in Gaza. The document was allegedly leaked to a foreign news outlet in order to bypass Israel’s military censor.

The leak occurred in September 2024, several days after six hostages were murdered by the terror group.

“The release of the secret information by Urich and [fellow Netanyahu  aide Eli] Feldstein was intended, among other things, to influence public opinion regarding the prime minister and to skew the discourse at the time regarding the murder of the six hostages in August 2024,” the Attorney General’s Office stated.

On his X account, Urich jabbed sardonically at the gravity of the charges against him, posting “It’s quite something that the attorney general refrained from seeking a death sentence.”

Urich’s lawyers, Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein, said in a statement that the decision to file charges is “erroneous and disconnected from evidence that refutes the prosecution’s thesis and thoroughly shatters the claims against Urich.”

“Urich never held or transferred secret information, and certainly not to harm state security,” they said, and declared that his innocence will be proven “beyond any doubt.”

The charges will mark the second indictment in the case, after Feldstein, a former Netanyahu adviser, was accused of obtaining the document from an NCO in military intelligence and coming up with the plan to leak it to the press.

Baharav-Miara’s office did not say when or where the charges would be filed.

Urich and Feldstein are also suspected in the so-called Qatargate affair regarding suspicions that they took money from Doha to launder the Gulf emirate’s image while also working for Netanyahu.

On Tuesday, the State Attorney’s Office announced plans to indict Netanyahu’s former chief of staff Tzachi Braverman over suspicions that he warned Feldstein about an investigation into the Bild leak and promised to quash the probe in exchange for his silence.

Braverman, who has been tapped to become Israel’s ambassador to the UK, faces charges of obstruction of justice, fraud and breach of trust, pending a hearing in which he will be able to present his side to justice officials.

Baharav-Miara initially announced plans to indict Urich in July 2025, pending a hearing.

According to Feldstein, Urich was informed of his plan to leak the document and approved it. When Israeli media outlets said they could not publish it because of the objections of the military censor, Feldstein says Urich helped him find a foreign outlet to publish it, with the assistance of Likud party adviser Yisrael Einhorn, who is also a suspect in the Qatargate case.

The obstruction of justice charge relates to Urich erasing his phone after Feldstein’s arrest.

Both the Bild and Qatargate affairs have become major political liabilities for Netanyahu, sparking accusations from critics regarding alleged conflicts of interest and graft among his closest advisers.

Opposition figures on Thursday accused Netanyahu of endangering state security due to his ties with Urich.

“The prime minister cannot embrace a person accused of deliberately harming the State of Israel,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on X, adding that Netanyahu’s “innermost circle is drowning in corruption, decay and the advancement of personal interests instead of the interests of the public.”

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan said the indictment shows that “Netanyahu’s closest circle is endangering state security.”

“In any normal country, a prime minister whose closest advisers are accused of harming state security would immediately suspend them and cooperate with investigators,” Golan said. “But Netanyahu is acting as though the State of Israel is his private property and the law does not apply to his associates.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attacked Baharav-Miara, whom he has repeatedly sparred with, saying the indictment was tainted.

“Jonatan Urich is an Israel-lover, a professional, whom the fired attorney general, who is on a witch hunt, wants to remove from the Prime Minister’s Office at any cost,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.

According to the Ynet outlet, the prosecution is now expected to seek to have Urich banned from visiting the Prime Minister’s Office, though his lack of official status may protect him from rules barring civil servants under indictment.

Earlier this month, the Shin Bet security agency dropped its ban on Urich entering the PMO.

Separately, the Movement for Quality Government filed a High Court of Justice petition Thursday seeking to ban Urich from the PMO, as well as anyone else involved in the so-called Qatargate affair.

Urich, Feldstein and Einhorn are suspected 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 attack, despite the Gulf state hosting the terror group.

Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud, breach of trust, and money laundering in that case.

Feldstein was summoned Thursday for further questioning by police, according to Hebrew media reports.

Israel is seeking the extradition of Einhorn from Serbia to face investigators.