(August 7, 2025)
WhatsApp communications show messaging sent from former Netanyahu aide Einhorn to then-spokesperson Feldstein, on to closest aide Urich, before being echoed by the prime minister or disseminated to the media; Netanyahu, Einhorn, Urich deny allegations of wrongdoing
(January 11, 2026)
In November 2024, the Israeli courts lifted a gag order and identified Mr. Feldstein, who was working as a military affairs spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, as one of the suspects in the case involving the stealing, illegal holding and leaking of a classified military document to a German newspaper, Bild.
Handwritten in Arabic, the document, obtained from Gaza, appeared to lay out Hamas’s plan for psychological warfare against Israel, claiming that Hamas was in no rush to reach a deal to release hostages or to end the war. Some of the messaging aligned with Mr. Netanyahu’s own approach.
Critics said the Bild article based on the leak appeared to be part of a deliberate effort by the prime minister or his loyalists to weaken the domestic campaign for the hostages’ release and influence Israeli public opinion in favor of Mr. Netanyahu’s negotiating positions.
(December 26, 2025)
Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said, “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after October 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.
“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?‘” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.”
He added that Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahu’s close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.
(today)
Over the past week, at least four ministers have spoken out about the scandal, in which close Netanyahu aide Jonathan Urich and his former spokesperson, Eli Feldstein, are accused of working as lobbyists for Qatar while simultaneously being employed in the Prime Minister’s Office. The allegation is particularly explosive because Hamas’s leadership is based in Qatar and the Gulf state has acted as a mediator in the Gaza war and the current ceasefire.
(December 24, 2025)
“[Netanyahu] is the one who ultimately was behind the leak,” Feldstein said emphatically, adding that he told interrogators the same thing repeatedly after his arrest and eventual indictment over the matter.
The document in question was an internal Hamas memo purporting to show that the terror group wasn’t interested in the compromises necessary to reach a hostage deal. After it was leaked to the Bild, Netanyahu used it to argue that only further military pressure would lead to the release of the hostages.
(December 26, 2025)
The affair surrounding the leak of classified documents to the German newspaper Bild and the so-called Qatargate scandal have returned to the headlines in recent days.
Eli Feldstein, former military spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is charged in the first case and implicated in the second, claimed this week that Netanyahu “knew about and backed the leak.” At the same time, correspondence between Feldstein and Yisrael Einhorn, a former close adviser to the prime minister, was revealed, showing efforts to promote pro-Qatar messaging in Israel.
(December 26, 2025)
Because what Feldstein portrayed was an office where Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman allegedly said he could block an IDF investigation, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu winked at circumventing the censor by releasing sensitive information to a foreign newspaper, and where officials close to Netanyahu were in the pay of Qatar and pushing favorable messages about that Hamas-supporting state during a time of war.
It wasn’t an accounting of a single bad decision, but of an environment where lines were blurred and manipulation of the public, via the press, ruled the day.
Urich, the primary suspect in the affair, allegedly employed Feldstein to help in the work of being in contact with journalists to advance this messaging.
Further filling out the information regarding the case, a police investigator told the court that Urich “and others” relayed information to journalists under the pretense that it came from senior Israeli political or security officials, when in reality Urich and Feldstein were spreading messaging emanating from the Qatari government via Footlik’s lobbying company.
Later, Feldstein’s lawyer Oded Saburai and Sion Hausman tell Channel 12 the claim that Feldstein did not act as a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office in the six months before his arrest “is false and contradicted by mountains of objective evidence.”
The lawyers assert their client acted in an official capacity on behalf of the Prime Minister’s office as a spokesperson on diplomatic and security matters.
Sources told Walla that the investigation will focus on cellphones that the police seized from Urich, which contain deleted text messages that link him to the classified documents affair, with an indictment filed against Feldstein and NCO Ari Rosenfeld for leaking a classified document to Feldstein. From there, it was publicized in the German daily Bild.
The police say they feel as though the judge is “‘giving his regards’ to the Judicial Selection Committee in order to pave the way for him to be appointed as a district judge.”
They further accuse him of forcing police investigators to discuss “sensitive documents” in hearings and say he writes his case decisions as though he is writing “press releases.”
“He writes classified things and then deletes them from the minutes after the media has already published them,” police charge.
Judge Menachem Mizrahi also levels criticism at the police investigators, saying that he suspects they didn’t focus solely on Urich and Feldstein’s alleged ties to Qatar during the last few days of interrogations, but also used the opportunity to probe the two prime ministerial aides about the classified documents leak from the Prime Minister’s Office, in which Feldstein is also a central suspect.
(April 2, 2025)
After Israeli businessman Gil Birger revealed that Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik had asked him to pay Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein for his work on behalf of Qatar, Feldstein insisted that the funds were actually for his work for the Prime Minister’s Office.
However, Channel 12 reveals the existence of a WhatsApp group between Footlik, Feldstein and Yisrael Einhorn — Urich’s partner at a PR firm who also served as a campaign adviser for Netanyahu.
Feldstein, who formerly worked as Netanyahu‘s military spokesperson, claimed he received a salary from Israeli businessman Gil Birger. According to Feldstein, the payment was arranged through Netanyahu‘s close adviser, Urich.
Urich, however, denied the claim outright, stating he does not know Birger and has never spoken with him.
Birger, for his part, has said that he transferred the funds on behalf of Jay Footlik, a lobbyist for Qatar, citing tax considerations as the motive.
Who are the suspects?
Yonatan Urich, who has been working closely with Netanyahu for most of the past decade, started out as the social media manager for the prime minister‘s Likud party.
Urich also co-owns a media consulting firm called Perception with Yisrael Einhorn, who has also worked with Netanyahu.
(…)
Eli Feldstein is already under investigation for leaking classified documents to journalists during the short time he worked unofficially as the prime minister‘s military affairs spokesman.
Authorities suspect the pair of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, money laundering, fraud, and breach of trust. The court extended their detention until Thursday, with Judge Menachem Mizrahi citing “reasonable suspicion” of wrongdoing and the risk of obstruction.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was questioned under caution but is not currently a suspect, dismissed the investigation as politically driven.
Zvika Klein, The Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief, was named on Tuesday as the journalist who was questioned by police the day before as part of the investigation into actions by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein.
During Klein’s testimony as a witness, he was cautioned but the nature of any allegations against him has not been specified.
(March 31, 2025)
The 20th session of the testimony of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his criminal corruption trial ended unexpectedly early on Wednesday, as suspicions swirled around the involvement of figures close to Netanyahu with Qatar.
(March 31, 2025)
The Israel Police on Monday announced that it had arrested two employees of the Prime Minister‘s Office as part of the „Qatar-gate“ investigation.
The two have been identified as Eli Feldstein and Yonatan Urich, with the arrest coming on the 20th day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s testimony in his corruption case at the District Court in Tel Aviv.
(Updated March 31, 2025 at 3:34 p.m. EDT)
Jonatan Urich and and Eli Feldstein were arrested amid increasing allegations that Netanyahu’s inner circle was involved in the transfer of money from Qatar, a key backer of Hamas.
(…)
(March 19, 2025)
According to reports, Feldstein—who previously failed a security clearance test—was unable to receive a salary from Netanyahu’s office through official channels. Instead, he was allegedly paid indirectly through Qatari-linked funds, transferred via the Qatari government, which sent the money to lobbyist Jay Footlik; Footlik himself, who transferred funds to Israeli businessman Gil Birger; and Birger, whose company allegedly funneled the money to Feldstein.
(March 19, 2025)
The arrests came hours after the Kan public broadcaster aired recordings in which Gulf-based Israeli businessman Gil Birger admitted to transferring money from a Qatari employed lobbyist to Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein.
A sweeping court-issued gag order in effect until April 10 bars the publication of most details regarding the investigation.
(March 19, 2025)
The arrests are made hours after the Kan public broadcaster aired recordings in which a Gulf-based Israeli businessman admitted to transferring money from a Qatari employed lobbyist to Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein.
Israeli businessman Gil Birger, via a private company, paid Feldstein while the latter was working as Netanyahu’s spokesman, according to Kan.
(March 16, 2025)
– The investigation, dubbed „Qatar-Gate“ in the Israeli press, focused on alleged payments Netanyahu‘s advisers facilitated and received from Qatar in return for working on improving the image of the country in Israel.
– Qatar is one of the key mediators in the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. But Netanyahu‘s decision in 2018 to ask Qatar to transfer money to Hamas in Gaza for humanitarian purposes became one of the main points of criticism against him after the Oct. 7 attack.
– The Shin Bet determined a portion of that money went to Hamas‘ military build-up.
(March 11, 2025)
Two weeks ago, Baharav-Miara stated that the probe would be conducted by the Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency. The case focuses on three close associates of Netanyahu:
– Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson who has already been investigated and indicted in a separate case involving leaked classified documents.
– Jonathan Urich, an adviser and spokesperson also implicated in the classified documents case, where he allegedly corresponded directly with Feldstein regarding the leaked material.
– Israel Einhorn, a campaign consultant involved in Likud‘s election efforts.
(November 4, 2024)
During that period, the US, Qatar, and Egypt were mediating talks between Israel and Hamas, seeking a framework for a ceasefire and a potential hostage release. Both sides ultimately accused the other of obstructing progress. Hostage families, frustrated by the lack of movement, joined journalists in a petition to lift the gag order on Feldstein’s case.