Netanyahu denounces leaks investigations and arrests as ‘witchhunt’

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced investigations into his office over the leak of classified documents as a “witch-hunt”.

In a video on Saturday evening, he also defended his aide Eli Feldstein — who was charged on Thursday over an alleged security breach along with an unnamed IDF reservist — as a “patriot”, according to the Times of Israel.

The charges mainly relate to the theft of a document reportedly revealing Hamas intransigence over the hostages from an IDF database which was leaked to the German newspaper Bild.

The motivation behind the leak was allegedly to influence Israeli public opinion against an immediate hostage deal in Gaza shortly after the bodies of six murdered hostages were discovered in late August.

According to TOI, the Prime Minister hit out at the way the suspects had been detained.

“This reality, in which young people are held like the worst terrorists, handcuffed for days, days in which they are prevented from accessing their lawyers, and violating their basic rights as citizens, shakes me,” he said.

He dismissed accusations that the two men intended to harm state security as “despicable” and “ridiculous’.

“I know Eli Feldstein,” the Prime Minister said. “We are talking about an Israeli patriot, a passionate Zionist.”

“There is no chance that he would do something to intentionally harm the country’s security,” he claimed.

He also complained that sometimes classified documents were not being passed on to him. “I am the prime minister. I need to receive important classified documents, and indeed sometimes important information doesn’t reach me,” he said.