Israeli police issue arrest warrant against ex-Netanyahu aide

Israel – (Special Correspondent / Web Desk) – Israeli police on Monday issued an arrest warrant for a former aide of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of involvement in two separate controversies linked to the prime minister’s office.

Israel Einhorn, a former campaign adviser now residing in Serbia, was named by police as a suspect in the so-called “Bild affair” and has been barred from contacting the prime minister’s office.

Court documents confirm that an arrest warrant is pending against him, a move later confirmed by police officials.

Netanyahu reacted by claiming the case was politically motivated, saying investigators were targeting his former advisers after failing to defeat him at the ballot box.

The Bild affair centers on the alleged leak of sensitive Israeli military intelligence to a German newspaper in 2024, for which two other aides have already been charged.

Einhorn is also under investigation in the “Qatargate” case, involving claims of lobbying on Qatar’s behalf.

Qatar hosts senior Hamas leaders and has played a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement during the war in Gaza.

It also sent millions of dollars in cash to Gaza every month between 2018 and October 2023 to pay Hamas’s civil servants and for cash handouts to Gazan families.

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The news of the warrant came after the police on Sunday detained a current senior aide to Netanyahu suspected of obstructing an investigation, with local media reporting that it was the premier’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman.

Another former Netanyahu aide, Eli Feldstein, recently said during a televised interview that Braverman offered to “shut down” an army investigation into the Bild affair.

Feldstein himself is on trial for his alleged involvement in both the Bild leak and Qatargate.

In the same interview, Feldstein said Netanyahu was aware of the leak and was in favour of using the document to drum up public support for the war.

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Israeli media reported on Monday that Braverman, picked to become Israel’s next ambassador to the UK, was barred from leaving the country for 30 days, and from being in contact with the Prime Minister’s office for 15 days.

AFP contacted the police and Braverman’s lawyer to confirm the bans but did not immediately receive a response.