Netanyahu’s aides accused of leaking classified intel to Qatar for anti-Egypt push

Three advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Jonatan Urich, Yisrael Einhorn, and Eli Feldstein — leaked classified information to Qatar about Israeli concerns regarding Egypt while they were allegedly on Doha’s payroll, the Israel Hayom daily reported on Sunday, citing an Israeli security official.

According to the report, the Qataris leaked the information they got from the trio to Israeli reporters as part of a campaign aimed at downgrading Cairo in the eyes of the Israeli public, creating room for Doha to take the lead role in hostage negotiations with Hamas.

Egypt and Qatar were the two key mediators in talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and securing the release of the hostages taken by the terror group during the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

The leaks came from meetings in March-May 2024 involving Netanyahu, the National Security Council, the IDF, and the Shin Bet, which examined Israel-Egypt ties and whether Egypt was violating the terms of the 1979 peace agreement by dispatching forces into Sinai.

Articles on ostensible Egyptian violations appeared in the Israeli press in 2024 and early 2025.

Einhorn, Urich and Feldstein are all key suspects in the “Qatargate” investigation, which primarily revolves around suspicions that they committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while working for the prime minister.

Investigators of Qatargate believed that the three received information from Qatar and fed it to Israeli reporters, but the new revelations show that the flow of information went in both directions.

Urich and Feldstein have both been arrested and questioned for their suspected role in the case. Einhorn, who resides in Serbia, was recently questioned by Israeli investigators in Belgrade after he refused to come to Israel for fear of arrest upon arrival.

According to Israel Hayom, defense officials feared that the leaks could put the peace agreement with Egypt at risk and could reduce Cairo’s willingness to help free the hostages held by Hamas.

The newspaper said it investigated the claims by speaking to another security official who was present for the classified conversations, who confirmed the first source's account of what was discussed, and noted that the timing of the different leaks lined up.

Einhorn's lawyer called the report on Sunday a "lie, unfounded, and totally denied."

Urich said it was "a total lie… published by political rivals in the middle of an election season," adding: "I was never present at a classified discussion, and I never transferred any information, even unclassified, to anyone."

Feldstein and Netanyahu’s office declined to respond to the report.

The Israel Hayom story quickly drew outraged responses from the premier’s opponents in the upcoming October 27 election, who have repeatedly pointed to the Qatargate affair as a betrayal of the country in wartime and assailed Netanyahu for his characterizations of Qatar as “complicated,” rather than an enemy.

“This is what treason against the State of Israel looks like. Netanyahu’s advisers who received money from Qatar jeopardized our strategic relations with Egypt to serve Qatari interests,” declared Yair Golan, who chairs the left-wing Democrats party.

“Five wars and thousands of fallen soldiers led us to the peace agreement with Egypt, and Netanyahu’s office did not hesitate to jeopardize it for financial greed. Their bank accounts drove Israel’s foreign and security policy while the best of our sons were being killed at the front,” Golan wrote X.

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, whose party currently leads in polls, also slammed Netanyahu and called for a state commission of inquiry, declaring that “any reasonable prime minister would order an investigation to clear the air and ensure that his people work for the interests of the State of Israel, and not another country — but not this prime minister.”

He said establishing such a probe would be his first act in office if elected. Netanyahu has fought efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry — the traditional body for investigating major incidents and the only body empowered to subpoena witnesses — into issues related to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and subsequent wars.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid noted that Likud torpedoed legislation he proposed declaring Qatar an enemy state, while Lapid’s B’Yachad partner Naftali Bennett — who has also pledged to declare Doha an enemy — used the report to go after the Gulf state, calling it a “venomous enemy” whose influence over Gaza he would work to erase if elected.

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