After originally being scheduled for Tuesday, a hearing to determine whether restrictive conditions should continue to apply to the chief of staff of the Prime Minister’s Office was moved up to Monday afternoon and will be held before Lod District Court Judge Yaakov Spasser.
Tzachi Braverman, the chief of staff at the Prime Minister’s Office and a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was detained for questioning last week alongside PMO spokesman Omer Mantzur in connection with the so-called Bild leak affair.
The case concerns classified military documents leaked in September 2024 to the German tabloid Bild, which reportedly outlined Hamas’s position on hostage negotiations.
According to investigators, the documents were allegedly leaked in an effort to influence public opinion in favor of intensifying military pressure on the terror group. The material was published abroad after failing to receive approval from the IDF military censor.
The publication came just weeks after six Israeli hostages were murdered by Hamas in tunnels in Rafah: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, and Alex Lobanov.
Former PMO aide Eli Feldstein denies charges in classified leak case
Eli Feldstein, a former media adviser and spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office, was arrested on suspicion of offenses related to the unauthorized possession and leaking of classified material.
Prosecutors allege that Feldstein unlawfully obtained and disseminated the document in a manner that could have caused serious harm to state security, and he has also been suspected of obstruction of justice.
Feldstein has denied wrongdoing and was later released from custody under restrictive conditions as the investigation continues.
Last month, he gave an interview to KAN in which he described a late-night meeting in a parking lot with Braverman, during which the chief of staff allegedly questioned him about the leak, mentioned several individuals who might be connected to it, and suggested he had the ability to “turn off” the investigation.
These claims were made solely by Feldstein and have been denied by all other parties involved.
Following the detention of Braverman and Mantzur earlier last week - based on the information revealed by Feldstein in the interview - Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court President Judge Menahem Mizrahi ruled to terminate the restrictive conditions previously imposed on them, as well as on Yonatan Urich, a senior adviser to Netanyahu who is also a suspect in the Bild affair and in the related “Qatargate” investigation.
In his decision, Mizrahi sharply criticized police conduct, describing the requests as procedurally flawed, overly broad, and insufficiently grounded in the legal framework governing the case.
The restrictive measures in question generally included employment bans, no-contact orders, and travel restrictions.
The Qatargate investigation centers on alleged Qatari ties involving figures close to Netanyahu, against the backdrop of Qatar’s role as an intermediary during the war, despite Israel not maintaining formal diplomatic relations with the Gulf state.
Earlier this month, police completed their investigation in the Qatargate matter and transferred the materials to the State Attorney’s Office. Due to a last-minute filing deadline, restrictive conditions imposed on Urich in that case expired.
Those conditions did not expire in the Bild case. Mizrahi consolidated the matters into a single ruling addressing requests to extend restrictive conditions on Urich, Mantzur, and Braverman.
He granted the police until Sunday to appeal the decision to the district court, which they did, also requesting a stay of execution. Police warned that lifting the restrictions posed a concrete risk to the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
Police have maintained that Urich, Mantzur, and Braverman are suspected of serious security-related offenses, including the delivery, possession, and destruction of classified information, some allegedly carried out with intent to harm state security. Investigators argue that the evidentiary basis against the suspects remains substantial and was improperly discounted at this preliminary stage.
Israeli media reported on Monday that Urich was summoned for questioning by the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit regarding the alleged midnight meeting described by Feldstein.
According to the reports, Urich was asked whether Feldstein had informed him of the meeting or whether he was aware of it from another source, and that he denied any such knowledge and rejected the claim that Feldstein had updated him.
At the heart of the dispute between the parties is whether the various events should be viewed as a single interconnected affair warranting far-reaching restrictive measures, as police argue, or whether the conditions amount to a disproportionate infringement on individual rights, as the defense contends.
A hearing on the extension of restrictive conditions in Urich’s case is scheduled for Tuesday.