Israeli authorities probe suspected Gaza intelligence leak by Netanyahu aide

[Pelican Press 0]

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******** authorities probe suspected Gaza intelligence ***** by Netanyahu aide

By Rami Amichay and Maayan Lubell

RISHON LE-ZION, ******* (Reuters) – A suspected ***** of classified Gaza documents involving an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has jolted ******** politics and outraged the families of hostages held by ****** who have been pushing for a deal to get their loved ones home.

Details of the case have trickled out slowly because of a gag order.

But a magistrate’s ruling partly lifting the order has provided an initial glimpse of the case that the court said had compromised security sources and may have harmed *******’s efforts to release the hostages.

“Classified and sensitive intelligence information was taken from IDF (******* Defence Forces) systems and taken out illegally,” a ruling by the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates’ Court said on Sunday, which may have caused “serious damage to the state’s security and posed a risk to information sources”.

In that, the court said, the ***** could have hurt efforts to release the hostages.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing by his office staffers and said in a statement on Saturday that he was only made aware of the leaked document by the media.

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

Details from the document in question were published by the ******* Bild newspaper on Sept. 6, according to ******** newspaper Haaretz, one of the media outlets that had appealed the court to lift the gag order.

The article, labelled as an exclusive, purportedly outlined the negotiation strategy of ******, the ************ Islamist militant group that ******* has been fighting in Gaza for more than a year.

Around that time, the ******* States, Qatar and Egypt were mediating ceasefire talks between ******* and ******, that were to include a deal to release hostages held in Gaza.

But the talks faltered with ******* and ****** trading blame for the deadlock. The article in question largely corresponded with Netanyahu’s allegations against ****** over the impasse.

It was published days after six ******** hostages were found ********* in a ****** tunnel in southern Gaza. Their ******** sparked mass protests in ******* and outraged ******** families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing the ceasefire talks for political reasons.

On Saturday, some of the families joined the ******** journalists’ appeal to lift the gag order.

“These people have been living on a rollercoaster of rumours and half truths,” said their lawyer, Dana Pugach.

“For the last year they have been waiting to hear any intelligence or any information about negotiations for the release of those hostages. If some of that information had been stolen from army sources then we think that the families have the right to learn about any relevant detail,” she added.

In another session on Sunday about the investigation by the Shin Bet domestic security service, police and the military, the court ordered one suspect be released, while keeping others in remand, according to Haaretz.

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

The war in Gaza erupted after ******-led militants attacked ******* on Oct. 7, 2023, ******** some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to ******** tallies. *******’s retaliatory offensives have ******* more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

(Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Friederike Heine in Berlin; Editing by James Mackenzie, Christina Fincher and Barbara Lewis)

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