A magistrate’s court on Tuesday granted police only a brief, 48-hour extension of the restrictive conditions imposed on Prime Minister’s Office chief of staff Tzachi Braverman, signalling growing judicial skepticism toward keeping the limits in place without a concrete timetable for one of the investigation’s central remaining steps: questioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a decision handed down at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, President Judge Menahem Mizrahi said there was no real dispute that Netanyahu’s testimony had become the main obstacle to completing the probe. But, he added, police themselves acknowledged there was currently no forecast for when that questioning could take place, given the wartime reality and the prime minister’s schedule.
On that basis, Mizrahi indicated there was little logic in extending Braverman’s restrictions through March 29, as police had requested, when there was no indication the investigative picture would materially change by then.
Instead, the judge extended the conditions for only 48 hours, after police disclosed during the hearing that Braverman had been summoned for questioning that same day and that investigators were in the process of examining his new mobile phone under what Mizrahi described as a very limited judicial order.
The court said it would be wrong to cancel most of the conditions before first reviewing the results of that investigative step.
The ruling marks another narrowing of the restrictions in the so-called “midnight meeting” affair, the obstruction-related offshoot of the broader Bild leak case.
Court lifts ban preventing Braverman from leaving Israel
Earlier this month, the same court lifted the ban preventing Braverman from leaving Israel and also canceled the prohibition on contact with Netanyahu, while making clear that the two could not discuss the investigation itself.
Other limits, including restrictions on contact with additional figures tied to the case, had remained in place through March 10.
At the center of the obstruction case is suspicion that Braverman, a senior Netanyahu aide, tipped off former prime ministerial spokesman Eli Feldstein in October 2024 that a covert probe was underway into the leak of classified material to the German newspaper Bild.
Investigators suspect Braverman improperly obtained sensitive information about the inquiry and passed it on to Feldstein, forming the basis for suspicions of obstruction of justice, unlawful transmission of official information by a public servant, and fraud and breach of trust.
The allegations erupted publicly after Feldstein said in a televised interview that Braverman had called him to a late-night meeting in an underground parking area at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, asked him to leave his phone behind, warned him about the investigation, and suggested he could “shut down” or “turn off” the probe.
KAN later reported that investigators believe Braverman had received sensitive information, including names linked to the covert inquiry, shortly before that alleged meeting. Braverman has denied the accusations, and prior reporting has said both he and the Prime Minister’s Office rejected Feldstein’s account.
Mizrahi’s latest decision also underscored how far the court believes the factual record has already crystallized. In the ruling, he noted that most other witnesses had already been questioned “inside and out,” and said Netanyahu’s testimony regarding the alleged nighttime meeting was relevant and important, but did not necessarily go to the very root of the evidentiary dispute.
Ultimately, the judge wrote, the core evidentiary question still largely stands between the competing versions of Braverman and Feldstein.
That reasoning appeared to cut against the state’s push for another lengthy extension. The judge also pointedly noted that when defense counsel pressed police in court on whether they truly feared Braverman and Netanyahu would coordinate versions, the prosecution representative did not provide a clear answer. He further stressed that the district court’s earlier agreement to let Braverman travel abroad reflected a degree of trust in him, even as the investigation remains open.
The broader Bild affair itself centers on the alleged leak of classified military material to the German tabloid in the summer of 2024, in what investigators suspect was an attempt to shape public opinion around hostage negotiations with Hamas. Feldstein has already been indicted in that case, and Braverman’s file grew out of the fallout from Feldstein’s later claims about how senior figures around Netanyahu handled the matter behind the scenes.