A new scandal involving an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rocked the Israeli political scene. The case concerns confidential defense documents relating to the war in Gaza, published in early September by two foreign media outlets, the British weekly The Jewish Chronicle and the German daily Bild. According to the Israeli judiciary, the leak of these classified documents, emanating from the Israeli army, could have caused "serious damage to state security" and jeopardized efforts to free hostages held in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli press went further, suggesting that the documents sent to the two newspapers, which were largely manipulated, are part of an opaque campaign of influence orchestrated by Netanyahu to torpedo any possibility of an agreement with Hamas. The Israeli prime minister is regularly accused of deliberately prolonging the war in Gaza, fearing that a cessation of hostilities would pave the way for an investigation into the October 7 security fiasco, which could prove fatal to him.

Five people have already been arrested as part of the investigation into the leaks, launched in September by Israel's internal security service Shin Bet, the police and the army. The only suspect whose identity was revealed at this stage by a court on Sunday is Captain Eli Feldstein, who worked as a spokesman in the prime minister's office for Israeli defense journalists.

However, the function of the officer in question was not clearly established at the administrative level, since he did not appear on the personnel list. Le Monde has learned he continued to receive his salary as an army reservist. It is additionally concerning that Feldstein had not been accredited by the Shin Bet for access to classified defense information, even though he had participated in several visits alongside Netanyahu to sites that required such accreditation.

The case began as soon as the "leaks" were published. On September 5, the Jewish Chronicle, the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world, reported what it described as a "scoop" based on Israeli "intelligence sources." It claimed that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader and mastermind of October 7 – who was killed on October 16 by the Israeli army – was planning to escape from Gaza, taking Israeli hostages with him through tunnels dug under the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates the Egyptian Sinai from the coastal territory. According to the British weekly, Sinouar planned to reach Iran, the protector of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

You have 44.42% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.