A former close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the premier of directing him to devise a plan to avoid responsibility for the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Eli Feldstein, Netanyahu’s former spokesperson, who faces trial over allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the claim during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday night.
Critics have long accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept accountability for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, but details of his actions immediately after the assault remain scarce. Netanyahu has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.
Feldstein said in the interview that “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7, 2023, was to suppress calls for accountability. He recalled Netanyahu asking, “What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?” and instructing him to craft responses to counter the media pressure. Feldstein added that Netanyahu appeared “panicked” and that aides later advised him to avoid using the word “responsibility” in public statements.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages to Gaza. Israel’s subsequent war has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which reports that about half of the victims were women and children.
Netanyahu’s office dismissed Feldstein’s claims as “a long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” according to Hebrew media reports.
Feldstein’s remarks follow his indictment for allegedly leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of Netanyahu after six hostages were killed in Gaza last August. He is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal, accused along with another close aide of receiving money from Qatar while serving the prime minister.