An Israeli officer suspected of leaking secret documents to foreign media has revealed his motives for the first time.
Channel 9 writes about this.
During interrogation, he said that having received the data collected at Hamas headquarters, he was sure that this information should be transmitted to the country’s Prime Minister. However, according to the officer, he learned that his commanders were not going to transmit information to the head of government, which caused him concern.
The officer said that in an effort to avoid a situation similar to that of another officer who had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to convey important information to command, he decided to act independently.
Knowing of the existence of Eli Feldstein, the Prime Minister’s security consultant, he contacted him and gave him the documents, hoping that the Prime Minister would review them when deciding on the hostage deal.
However, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he never received these documents and their transfer was a violation of protocol. It turned out that Feldstein gave the documents to foreign publications, which published their contents despite the Israeli censorship ban.
After the incident, Israeli security forces decided to stop transmitting confidential information to political leaders in electronic format and switched to paper format to strengthen control over data leaks.
Eli Feldstein and several reservists were detained as part of the investigation and most details of the case remain classified. The suspects could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Previously, Cursor reported on who leaked secret IDF documents.
It is known who may be the organizer of the leak of classified information from Netanyahu’s office.
