The Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of being involved in a recent leak of classified intelligence leak to foreign media, according to statements made on November 12 on Israel's Army Radio by a defence lawyer.

The investigation centres on Eliezer Feldstein, a prime minister's media team advisor suspected of leaking classified documents to foreign media. Questions remain about whether Feldstein acted independently or under direct orders from Netanyahu's office.

These latest developments challenge the Prime Minister's Office's statement on November 2, which claimed Netanyahu learned about the document through media coverage rather than receiving it from the IDF Intelligence Directorate.

Attorney Michael Fetman, representing a detained reserve Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) whose identity remains under gag order, revealed that his client was instrumental in conveying the sensitive information. According to Fetman, Feldstein informed the reserve NCO that the information had reached Netanyahu directly.

"The prime minister wants more [information] and cleared a full day to treat the issue," Fetman quoted Feldstein as telling his client.

The reserve NCO, now in his 18th day of detention, reportedly sought to bypass traditional channels following concerns about handling previous intelligence warnings, particularly referencing the case of "NCO V", whose pre-October 7 Hamas attack warning went unheeded.

While the leaked document's contents remain under gag order, sources indicate it relates to a September report in the German newspaper Bild regarding Hamas's strategy on hostage negotiations. The timing of the leak coincided with peak public pressure on Netanyahu's government following the discovery of six executed hostages in southern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on September 1 the recovery of the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip. The victims, identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino, were found in a tunnel beneath the city of Rafah.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency is leading the investigation into the leak, while a separate police investigation by Lahav 433 is examining alleged tampering with official protocols by the prime minister's office regarding the October 7 attack, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Prime Minister's Office has strongly rejected these developments, describing them as politically motivated. In response to the allegations, they stated that it "hurts us very much that the lives of young people are being destroyed with idle claims to harm the right-wing government."

“In a democratic country, people are not arrested because of a leak for 20 days and held in dungeons - while preventing a meeting with a lawyer for many days - just to extract from them false statements against the Prime Minister,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

“This abuse is all the more outrageous because there was not a single investigation into the flood of criminal leaks from the Cabinet and the negotiating team during the entire year of the war.”

"These criminal leaks revealed information to Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, and caused great damage to Israel's security and the effort to free the hostages."

The case has raised concerns about both the handling of classified information and the treatment of suspects, as Fetman revealed his client was denied legal representation for the first ten days of detention.

Additional investigations continue regarding document tampering allegations and the broader implications for national security during ongoing hostage negotiations.