Israeli authorities are investigating the suspected intelligence leak in Gaza by a Netanyahu aide

RISHON LE-ZION, Israel: A suspected leak of secret Gaza documents involving an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rocked Israeli politics and outraged the families of hostages held by Hamas, who have pushed for a deal to save their loved ones to get home.

Details of the case are slowly trickling out due to a silence order.

But a magistrate’s ruling partially lifting the order has provided the first glimpse into the case that the court said had compromised security resources and possibly damaged Israel’s efforts to free the hostages.

“Classified and sensitive intelligence information was extracted from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) systems and illegally deleted,” said a ruling by the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates’ Court on Sunday (November 3), potentially causing “serious harm to the state has caused”. state security and posed a risk to information sources.”

The court said the leak could have damaged efforts to free the hostages.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing by his office staff, saying in a statement on Saturday that he was only informed of the leaked document by the media.

The four suspects – one a spokesperson from Netanyahu’s inner circle and three of them members of the security establishment – ​​could not be reached for comment.

Details from the document in question were published on September 6 by the German newspaper Bild, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, one of the media outlets that appealed to the court to lift the silence order.

The article, labeled as exclusive, reportedly outlined the negotiating strategy of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that Israel has been fighting in Gaza for more than a year.

Around that time, the United States, Qatar and Egypt brokered ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas that would include an agreement on the release of hostages held in Gaza.

But the talks collapsed, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the standoff. The article in question was largely consistent with Netanyahu’s allegations against Hamas over the standoff.

It was published days after six Israeli hostages were executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza. Their killing sparked mass protests in Israel and angry families of hostages, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing the ceasefire negotiations for political reasons.

On Saturday, some families joined calls from Israeli journalists to lift the gag order.

“These people live on a roller coaster of rumors and half-truths,” said their attorney Dana Pugach.

“For the past year they have been waiting for any intelligence or information about negotiations for the release of those hostages. “If some of that information was stolen from army sources, we believe the families have a right to learn of any relevant details,” she added.

In another session on Sunday on the investigation by the Shin Bet domestic security agency, police and military, the court ordered the release of one suspect while others were held in pretrial detention, Haaretz said.

Asked about the investigation, Bild said it does not comment on its sources. “The authenticity of the document known to us was confirmed by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) immediately after publication,” the report said.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.