In his video statement alleging selective prosecution of leaked sensitive security material, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cites five specific cases of leaked material that he says endangered the state and were not investigated, despite his repeated requests that they be probed.
This “flood of leaks,” which he says endanger the lives of IDF soldiers and hostages held by Hamas, and help Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, have come from the discussions in various cabinet forums, hostage negotiating teams and the most intimate, high-level security deliberations, he says.
He cites, first, a leak from the Israeli security “pit” on October 11, 2023, of “strategic information” on IDF capabilities — a leak he calls “one of the gravest in Israeli history.”
Second, he says nobody has investigated the leaking of footage from the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention center purporting to show IDF soldiers as criminals.
Third, he cites the leak of material from an August 2, 2024 discussion on the hostages and strategies for a potential deal and concessions, a leak which he says helped to harden its positions.
Fourth, he cites what he says was material leaked to The New York Times and local media exposing consideration being weighed by Israel with regards to Iran’s ballistic missile fire at Israel.
And finally, he cites the leak to Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative documentary program of the Jericho Wall document that detailed Hamas’s plans for what became the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.
Nobody was investigated in any of these cases, he says, adding that he could detail many other cases such as these of documents being stolen and given to others without authorization. He says most of these leaks were aimed to harm him and serve a narrative of capitulation to the enemy, and that is therefore “easy to understand” why they are not investigated.
The document from an IDF database allegedly leaked to his aide Eli Feldstein and by Feldstein to Germany’s Bild, “should have been on my desk,” he says.
“It’s a top-secret document,” he notes. “Why did it not come to me? I have to make decisions on the basis of that material.”
The material was kept from him, and “this is not the first time” that has happened, he says, apparently endorsing explanations provided by suspects in the case that they took the IDF material in order to bring it to his attention.
He says he has read the indictment published on Thursday and that it is clear that the NCO indicted in the case was worried that “relevant documents were not reaching me.”
Feldstein is alleged to have obtained the document that he leaked to Bild in June, and to have leaked it more than two months later, immediately after six hostages were murdered by their Hamas captors in Gaza and public anger at Netanyahu for failing to finalize a hostage deal was at its height.
The State Prosecution on Friday took the highly unusual step of posting a document debunking “widespread misinformation propagated by those with vested interests” regarding the case of the stolen and leaked IDF intel.