Court says hostage release agreement jeopardized by internal leak

Attempts to reach a peace deal in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held by Hamas may have been compromised by leaked and forged documents involving a close aide to the prime minister, an Israeli court said.

The court in the city of Rishon LeZion, in its partial lifting of a gag order, said Eli Feldstein and three others were under investigation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing by his staff, but opposition figures and hostage families have accused his government of sabotaging the negotiations.

The leak of the documents to the British Jewish Chronicle and the German tabloid Bild came at a crucial time in hostage negotiations.

According to the documents, Hamas planned to smuggle Israeli hostages into Egypt with the intention of scuttling any planned ceasefire agreement.

Some commentators say the revelations were politically useful for Netanyahu's tough stance in the talks, where there has been almost no progress.

Over 100 of the 251 hostages held by Hamas on October 7, 2023 remain missing.

After the stories were published in September, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an investigation to find the source of the leaks.

This ultimately led to the arrest of Eli Feldstein and the three others, whose identities were not revealed.

Mr. Feldstein served as a government spokesman and was often seen accompanying the prime minister on visits. He previously worked for the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and before that served as an IDF spokesman.

Following news of his arrest, two leading opposition politicians held a press conference.

Benny Gantz, who until recently served in Netanyahu's war cabinet, said that if sensitive security information was used for a “political survival campaign” it would not only be a criminal offense but “a crime against the nation.”

At the same event, opposition leader Yair Lapid said that if the prime minister knew about the leaks he would be “involved in one of the most serious security crimes” and that if he did not know he would be unfit for office.

The revelations also prompted strong criticism from the families of the hostages, who are increasingly frustrated by the government's failure to secure the release of their loved ones.

They said it was an active campaign to discredit her, calling it “a moral low point without depth. This is a fatal damage to what remains of trust between the government and its citizens.”

The documents were published in European newspapers, ostensibly to circumvent Israel's military censorship laws.

The Jewish Chronicle (JC) was mired in scandal after it was revealed that it had published stories based on a single anonymous source. The freelance writer behind the articles was fired and the articles were eventually removed.

The articles claimed that Yahya Sinwar was surrounded by a ring of around 20 hostages and that plans had been discovered to smuggle both the prisoners and the Hamas leader into Egypt. Leading Israeli security journalists questioned the veracity of the reports.

A number of high-profile writers resigned from the newspaper, accusing it of poor journalistic standards.

Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman and David Aaronovitch announced they were resigning from their columns due to what Freedland called a “great disgrace” at the world's oldest Jewish newspaper.

At the time, the JC said it had conducted a “thorough investigation” into one of its freelance journalists, Elon Perry, “after allegations were made about aspects of his record.”

It said it was “not satisfied” with some of the author's claims and had therefore deleted his articles and stopped working with him.

Elon Perry told BBC News that the JC “made a big mistake with his statement”. He said he could not reveal his source to JC editors and described a “witch hunt against me out of jealousy.”

The Bild articles, meanwhile, were based on a different set of intelligence documents. While they proved to be authentic, leading security journalist Ronan Bergman found that their significance was greatly exaggerated.

It was the publication of this story that triggered the investigation by the IDF and security services and ultimately led to the arrests.

Netanyahu tried to distance himself from the allegations, saying the arrested speaker never had access to classified information.

Still, it is a growing scandal that has further damaged the already strained relationship between the government and the hostage families.