Calls for a criminal investigation into suspected ”treason” within the Prime Minister’s Office following explosive claims aired in a televised interview by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein ramped up on Tuesday.
The October Council, representing bereaved families, hostage families, survivors of October 7, and IDF reservists, on Tuesday called on the Shin Bet to open what it described as an immediate criminal investigation.
The appeal came amid growing political fallout from Feldstein’s interview with KAN, broadcast Monday evening, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesperson, currently under indictment, claimed that the prime minister was aware of and supported his actions in using classified intelligence to shape public opinion against a hostage deal. The claims directly contradicted Netanyahu’s public assertion that he had no prior knowledge of the leak of the document to the German Bild tabloid.
In an urgent letter sent to Shin Bet chief David Zini, the October Council said Feldstein’s remarks raised “reasonable suspicion” that senior figures in the PMO were involved in an influence campaign allegedly conducted on behalf of Qatar, which has funded Hamas, and in efforts to deflect responsibility from Netanyahu in the days following the October 7 massacre.
The council argued that the allegations fit a broader pattern of conduct, pointing to the government’s refusal to establish a state Commission of Inquiry into the October 7 failures, while advancing a coalition-backed “political” investigative body that it said would avoid examining responsibility at the highest levels.
Earlier on Tuesday, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari formally asked Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, on suspicion of obstruction of justice, citing remarks Feldstein said were made to him.
In a post on X/Twitter, Ben Ari referenced Feldstein’s claim that Braverman told him he could “shut down” a probe into the leak of classified intelligence to Bild, arguing that the alleged comment raised serious concerns of interference in law-enforcement proceedings. She accused Netanyahu’s inner circle of fostering what she described as a “criminal and corrupt environment.”
No findings have been made against Braverman, and no investigation has yet been announced. The Attorney-General’s Office has not commented publicly on whether it intends to act on Ben Ari’s request.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett on Monday called the Qatargate affair “the most serious act of treason in Israeli history,” and called on Netanyahu to resign.
“Netanyahu’s office betrayed the State of Israel and IDF soldiers during wartime and acted on behalf of Qatar for financial gain, and Netanyahu himself is covering it up,” Bennett said in a statement following the Feldstein interview. “Whether Netanyahu knew or did not know that his office was working for the enemy in time of war, both possibilities require his immediate resignation.”
Feldstein’s appearance on KAN marked his first media interview since his arrest in November 2024 and subsequent indictment over the leak of stolen intelligence to Bild. The tabloid published the classified material in September 2024 as purported evidence that Hamas was not interested in reaching a hostage deal with Israel.
Subsequent reporting in Israel found that the document had been selectively presented and did not fully reflect Hamas’s negotiating positions, raising concerns that the leak was used to shape public discourse at a politically sensitive moment. Weeks earlier, in August 2024, six hostages who had been held alive by Hamas were murdered by terrorists in a tunnel in Rafah: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Almog Sarusi, 27, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, and Carmel Gat, 40.
According to Feldstein, Braverman had learned of the covert investigation into the September leak months before it became public and assured him that the probe could be halted.
The Bild affair is one of two probes involving Netanyahu’s aides
The so-called “Bild affair” is one of two ongoing investigations involving figures close to Netanyahu that have drawn intensified scrutiny. In a separate case known as “Qatargate,” police and Shin Bet investigators are examining allegations that senior aides in the Prime Minister’s Office promoted Qatari interests while serving in official roles, despite Qatar’s ties to Hamas and its central role in hostage mediation.
On Monday, Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court President Judge Menachem Mizrahi approved an agreement extending restrictive conditions on Yonatan Urich, another Netanyahu aide implicated in the Qatargate probe and whom Feldstein described as his direct supervisor. Under the ruling, Urich remains barred from entering the Prime Minister’s Office until at least January 4, with police permitted to seek a further extension subject to evidentiary justification.
Both investigations remain ongoing, and no findings have implicated Netanyahu directly. Still, the convergence of the cases has intensified legal and public scrutiny of the Prime Minister’s Office, as authorities examine whether national-security materials and foreign interests were improperly leveraged for political purposes.