Top aides to Benjamin Netanyahu are suspected of trying to blackmail an IDF officer in the military secretariat of the Prime Minister's Office in order to modify minutes of top-level security discussions in the hours before the Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza, Hebrew media reported Friday.

The reports provided new details of a slew of security-related probes into the PMO that have been revealed in recent days, which are largely under a court-mandated gag order.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has approved an investigation into Netanyahu himself as the scandals around his office multiply, the Maariv newspaper reported. Law enforcement officials cited in Haaretz and Ynet accused the police of trying to minimize the severity of the scandals.

A top political figure cited by Channel 12 said:

"The investigations into the PMO were only a reaffirmation of what everyone already knew. The prime minister's people didn't shy away from any means to change the narrative and exonerate the premier from the failures that led to the war."

Netanyahu's office pushed back on the allegations, saying they were "another lie in the web of lies that some are trying to spin about the PMO."

Multiple probes

The office has been the subject of several probes whose existence was disclosed only recently. Law enforcement carried out a highly unusual raid in Netanyahu's office last Saturday, Hebrew media said, though it wasn't clear which investigation that was related to.

Several reports on Thursday night said Netanyahu's office had separately collected sensitive videos of both an IDF officer who worked at the PMO and recently fired defense minister Yoav Gallant, who has sparred publicly with the premier over the conduct of the war.

Four IDF servicemembers and a spokesman for Netanyahu have already been detained as part of an investigation into the theft of top-secret army intelligence documents, at least one of which was leaked to the foreign press, possibly for political gain. The court said the leak harmed attempts to bring home hostages held by Hamas.

The Shin Bet and State Attorney's Office prevented the detainees from seeing legal counsel for several days. Channel 13 reported Friday that police disagreed with the other two bodies' approach; police were said to believe the theft was not systematic and that the case would be closed in a matter of days.

The i24 news channel reported Thursday that State Attorney Amit Eisman yelled at a police officer who suggested in a meeting that the case was being blown out of proportion. Ynet cited law enforcement officials as saying that the police had been taken over by "the spirit of [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir," who opposes a hostage deal.
In a statement to Haaretz, police said they disagreed with Eisman on professional grounds. A law enforcement official cited in the newspaper said Eisman later apologized for the outburst, but also accused police of trying to minimize the severity of the case. The official expressed concern that inaccurate media reporting about the investigation would harm the credibility of Israel's law enforcement.

On Tuesday, the court made public the existence of another investigation into "events related to the beginning of the war." Hebrew media indicated the probe was related to a July report on Ynet that Netanyahu's former military secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, had some months before warned the attorney general of efforts to change protocols of security discussions.

Channel 13 said Netanyahu's office was especially spooked by the probe that was publicized on Tuesday, and that Gallant's ouster hours later was a bid to divert the public's attention.

According to Channel 12, as part of the alleged attempt to change protocols, Netanyahu's aides are thought to have used "sensitive footage" of a military secretariat officer in order to coax him into changing protocols discussions from the night of October 6-7, 2023 — hours before thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu has blamed Israel's security forces for failure to foresee the attack, and resisted calls for a public commission of inquiry to be established into events leading up to it.

Channel 13 said Netanyahu's aides allegedly stole compromising information about a military secretariat officer from the phone of a woman who works in the PMO. Netanyahu's aides allegedly took her phone under the pretext that she was suspected of leaking confidential information, but are thought to have sought her personal correspondence with the officer, the report said.

The Kan public broadcaster had on Thursday reported that Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, had some months ago received a complaint that the PMO was holding, and making inappropriate use of, sensitive footage of an IDF officer. Channel 13 reported that an official in Netanyahu's circle told Halevi the officer was in an inappropriate relationship with a female worker in the PMO, though an army probe determined the relationship was not an abuse of power.
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