Israel prosecutors announce indictment of Netanyahu aide

JERUSALEM – The Israeli attorney-general’s office said on May 28 that it would indict a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of “transmitting classified information with the intent to harm state security”.

The case concerns the leak of a classified document regarding the war in Gaza to German newspaper Bild in 2024, in violation of military censorship.

In a letter addressed to the lawyers of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s aide Yonatan Urich, the attorney-general said an indictment would be filed with a Tel Aviv court.

In addition to “transmitting classified information with the intent to harm state security”, the charges include possession and transmission of classified information, and destruction of evidence, according to a copy of the document seen by AFP.

The leaked document reportedly aimed to support Mr Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas was not interested in a ceasefire deal and that hostages captured by Palestinian militants during their Oct 7 assault on Israel in 2023 could only be freed through military pressure.

Two other former advisers to Mr Netanyahu, Mr Eli Feldstein and Mr Ari Rosenfeld, have also been indicted in the case.

Mr Urich, one of Mr Netanyahu’s closest advisers, is also a suspect in the so-called “Qatargate” scandal, in which he and other close associates of Mr Netanyahu are suspected of having been recruited by Qatar to promote the Gulf monarchy in Israel.

Qatar hosts senior Hamas leaders and has played a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement during the war in Gaza.

A former spokesperson for Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, Mr Urich heads a consulting firm that Israeli media claim was hired by Qatar to polish its image ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

On May 26, Israeli prosecutors said they were weighing charges of “fraud and breach of trust, as well as obstruction of justice” for Mr Netanyahu’s former chief of staff Tzachi Braverman in connection with the leak of the classified document to Bild. AFP