Yonatan Urich, a senior aide and personal media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be permitted to continue working at the Prime Minister’s Office after the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a prosecution request on Thursday to reimpose restrictive conditions against him in the Bild case.
The prosecution had asked Judge Ala’a Masarwa to bar Urich from entering the Prime Minister’s Office, security facilities, or places where classified material may be held. It also sought to prohibit him from direct or indirect contact with Netanyahu and others connected to the case until the end of the proceedings.
Essentially, the court was asked to decide whether prosecutors had shown that Urich posed a current risk of obstructing proceedings or creating a security danger serious enough to justify removing him from the office while his trial continues.
Prosecutors told the court that Urich had already demonstrated a willingness to obstruct the investigation, pointing to allegations that he replaced his phone shortly after the former Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Eli Feldstein was arrested.
According to the prosecution, Urich had told investigators that he replaced his phone about every six months. Investigators later concluded that he generally changed devices only once every two years and that he replaced the phone a day after Feldstein’s arrest.
Urich alleged to have helped disseminate classified information around hostage talks
The prosecution argued that the device contained central evidence and that its replacement prevented investigators from recovering relevant material.
“The danger posed by Urich is high, and the potential harm is serious,” the prosecution representative said, arguing that the severity of the charges and the possibility of a life sentence created a heightened incentive to interfere with the proceedings.
Masarwa questioned why the restrictions should be reinstated now, nearly two years after the alleged offenses.
“As time passes, the danger diminishes,” he said, noting that the concern over interference had been at its strongest when investigators first arrived at Urich’s home. The judge also pointed to the fact that Urich had previously been allowed to meet with Netanyahu, including after the affair became public.
“Now, after a year and a half, the obstruction has returned?” Masarwa asked. “I have a hard time with that.”
The prosecution responded that the earlier easing of conditions did not reflect a conclusion that they were unnecessary. Rather, it said, the restrictions had lapsed during wartime, when investigators were unable to set a timetable for obtaining Netanyahu’s testimony.
Prosecutors said they had ultimately been forced to proceed without the prime minister’s testimony after repeated attempts to obtain it had failed.
The hearing also came against the backdrop of a reported discrepancy between Netanyahu’s and Urich’s accounts of how the Prime Minister’s Office operated.
Channel 13 reported last week that Netanyahu had sought in his testimony to distance himself from Feldstein, saying there had been no ongoing direct working relationship between them. Urich, according to the report, told investigators that PMO spokespeople worked directly with Netanyahu and that every statement required the prime minister’s approval.
Were Feldstein’s alleged actions carried out with authorization from within Netanyahu’s inner circle?
That issue could bear on one of the central factual questions in the case: whether Feldstein’s alleged actions were carried out with authorization from within Netanyahu’s inner circle. The court did not decide that question on Thursday.
Urich was added earlier this month to an amended indictment in the Bild leak case alongside Feldstein and IDF reservist Ari Rosenfeld.
The case centers on allegations that classified military intelligence concerning Hamas’s position in hostage negotiations was removed from authorized channels and later published in the German newspaper Bild in September 2024, after the military censor barred publication in Israel.
According to the indictment, Rosenfeld contacted Feldstein in June 2024 and offered to transfer urgent intelligence material from Military Intelligence to the prime minister. Feldstein allegedly updated Urich shortly afterward.
Prosecutors allege that, after the censor blocked publication of the material in Israel, Feldstein asked Urich whether he had contacts abroad who could publish it. Urich allegedly directed him to Netanyahu associate Israel Einhorn, after which the material was placed with Bild.
The indictment further alleges that Urich helped use the publication in public messaging around the hostage negotiations and retained an unauthorized translation of the classified document.
Urich is charged with providing secret information with the intent to harm state security, providing secret information, possessing secret information, and destroying evidence.
His lawyers have denied wrongdoing and argued that the prosecution’s case is unsupported by the evidence.