Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a growing political scandal over leaks of classified information that the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza say undermined support for efforts to free them.
They demanded a deal to end the war in Gaza and free the 101 Israeli hostages still in captivity in the enclave.
“[Netanyahu] is claiming he doesn’t know what his own office is doing while Israel is in an existential war,” Lapid said on Sunday.
The presiding judge, Menachem Mizrahi, said the leaks could have harmed Israel’s ability to extricate the hostages still held in Gaza.
The leaks cited documents that claimed Hamas planned to divide Israeli society with propaganda efforts about the hostages.
Leaks of classified material that the relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza claim damaged support for efforts to free them have set Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of a escalating political scandal.
Last week, a court in Israel partially lifted a gag order on an investigation into the leaks, which included the arrest of five individuals, including a media adviser to Netanyahu. Netanyahu claimed that the militant organization, not the Israeli leader, was the impediment to a deal to free the hostages, and the leaks seemed to corroborate his claims about now-discredited Hamas plans.
Outraged by the prime minister’s leaks, demonstrators blocked a major highway in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center, on Tuesday. They called for an agreement to put an end to the conflict in Gaza and release the 101 Israeli hostages who were still held captive in the enclave.
According to the Women’s Protest for the Return of the Hostages, one of the organizations involved, “This week, Netanyahu’s true war objectives were revealed: blocking the hostage deal, launching an incitement campaign against families fighting to bring their loved ones home, and gravely harming the security of the state.”.
Netanyahu’s office has denied that any of its employees have been detained or questioned, and it has denied that the information’s release, which was reported in articles in Germany’s Bild and the UK’s Jewish Chronicle, had any negative effects on Israel’s national security or the hostage negotiations.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which advocates for the families of those detained by Hamas, claimed that officials had “worked to undermine public support for the hostage deal,” expressing “outrage and deep concern at discovering.”.
The accusations have also been exploited by opposition politicians to attack Netanyahu. The leader of Yesh Atid, the biggest opposition party, Yair Lapid, stated that the leaks “ought to horrify every Israeli” and insisted that the inquiry look into whether Netanyahu was aware of them.
Lapid stated on Sunday that “[Netanyahu] is saying he doesn’t know what his own office is doing while Israel is in an existential war.”. “He is an unfit . if that is the case. to command Israel in the most challenging conflict in its history. “.”.
The head of the center-right National Unity party, Benny Gantz, stated that further investigation and clarification are necessary regarding the classified material leak.
It is not only a criminal offense, but a national crime, he declared, if private security data is taken and used as a weapon in a political survival effort.
Last week, when the gag order was partially lifted, the scandal became public knowledge. The leaks might have made it more difficult for Israel to free the hostages still in Gaza, according to presiding judge Menachem Mizrahi.
The documents that were leaked stated that Hamas intended to use propaganda about the hostages to split Israeli society. Additionally, they indicated that the militant group intended to use tunnels beneath the so-called Philadelphi corridor, which divides Egypt and Gaza, to smuggle the hostages to Egypt.
When the stories first surfaced, in late August and early September, Netanyahu was under tremendous pressure from large-scale street demonstrations to agree to a deal that would end the war and free the hostages. According to Israeli intelligence, approximately one-third of the hostages have already passed away.
However, many regional diplomats believe that a major factor in the failure of the negotiations was Netanyahu’s refusal to relinquish control of the Philadelphi corridor.
Following the news, the Israeli military informed reporters that the documents were old, written by a low-level Hamas official, and did not represent the army’s intelligence on Hamas’s strategy.
Following the October 7 attack by Hamas, support for Netanyahu’s Likud party began to regain ground in recent months.
According to political analyst and pollster Dahlia Scheindlin, Netanyahu has a history of weathering political storms, but given the desire for a deal to bring the hostages home in Israel, the latest scandal could hurt him politically.
It might be moot, she added, if elections are not held until 2026 as planned. She remarked, “As always, the question is when these processes are tested.”. “Because who knows what will happen in two years, even if people have already reached their breaking point. “”.
