Former military spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, Eli Feldstein, was interrogated on Monday morning at the offices of the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit, Israeli media reported. Israel Police refused to comment on the ongoing investigation.
Feldstein is one of several major suspects in investigations into Qatari influences over significant figures close to the prime minister. Per reports, he was confronted with the testimony of Israel Einhorn, a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was investigated from where he resides in Serbia last month.
The crux of the investigations is that these individuals received a Qatari payroll to run a public relations campaign for the Gulf state, relating to the 2022 World Cup, but also in the context of the Israel-Hamas War, to paint Qatar as the strongest mediator, and downplay that of Egypt’s. Qatar has denied this accusation.
A third figure, Yonatan Urich, also a close aide to the prime minister, is under lax house arrest conditions after his detention and continued interrogations in March.
He testified that he did not take part in the efforts to sway Israeli public opinion on Qatar, and that there was no connection between bringing Feldstein into the fold and a meeting with American lobbyist for Qatar, Jay Footlik. These are likely the facts Feldstein was confronted with.
Feldstein was allegedly the man who passed on these messages to Israeli journalists, presented as sourced in intelligence, when really they were sourced in Qatar - allegedly through Einhorn.
Leaked documents affair
A specific case is the “leaked documents affair,” in which Feldstein allegedly leaked classified military documents to the German tabloid Bild, after permission for their publication was denied by the Israeli military censor.
The documents were eventually published, allegedly to sway public opinion on the hostage negotiations. This was around August 2024, when six hostages were killed by their Hamas captors in a tunnel: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Almog Sarusi, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, and Alex Lobanov.