A former close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that the latter gave him instructions to determine how the premier could avoid accountability for the security lapse, following the October 2023 Hamas attack that set off Israel’s two-year war in Gaza.
During an interview with Israel’s Kan news channel on Monday night, former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who is on trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the media, made the shocking charge.
Netanyahu has been accused by critics on numerous occasions of hesitating to take responsibility for the bloodiest attack in Israel’s history. However, little is known about his actions in the days that followed the attack, and the prime minister has continuously opposed an impartial official investigation.
Feldstein told Kan that “the first task” Netanyahu gave him following the Oct 7, 2023, attack, was to suppress demands for accountability.
“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility? He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not,” Feldstein said.
He went on to say that when Netanyahu made the request, he appeared “panicked.” Feldstein claimed that members in the prime minister’s inner circle then advised him to leave the word “responsibility” out of all statements.
On Oct 7, 2023, militants led by Hamas killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and returned 251 hostages to Gaza. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but claims that around half of the casualties were women and children, Israel then began a deadly war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians.
According to Hebrew media, Netanyahu’s office described the interview as a “long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself.”
Feldstein’s statements follow his indictment in a case in which he is accused of leaking a German tabloid with classified military information to enhance the public’s opinion of the prime minister after six hostages were killed in Gaza in August last year.
He is one of Netanyahu’s two close aides who are suspected of taking money from Qatar while working for the prime minister, is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal.