Netanyahu aides suspected of blackmailing army officer: reports

Senior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are suspected of attempting to blackmail an army officer to alter the minutes of high level security meetings held hours before the 7 October attack, Israeli media has reported.

The officer who was allegedly targeted by the aides worked in the military secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), according to the Times of Israel (TOI), which cited Hebrew-language media.

A number of reports say that a complaint was made to army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi over the alleged use of a sensitive video of an army officer by the PMO.

Halevi was reportedly told that the officer was in an inappropriate relationship with a female PMO staff member, leading to an army probe.

The PMO then allegedly obtained the woman’s phone under the pretext of investigating leaked information, however used the device to extract her private communications with the army officer.

The footage is believed to have been used to coerce the officer into changing protocols from the evening of 6-7 October 2023.

On Sunday, Israel’s Kan broadcaster named Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman being the official suspected of carrying out the blackmail  — a claim Braverman denied and threatened legal action over.

“This is a lie from start to finish, whose aim is to harm me and the Prime Minister’s Office in the middle of a war,” Braverman said in a statement quoted by TOI.

The allegations are the latest against the scandal-stricken prime minister, who is still the subject of a graft trial and has refused to establish a public commission of inquiry into the 7 October attack.

Netanyahu has largely blamed Israel’s security forces for the failures, which saw Hamas and allied groups storm across the border on 7 October. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack, with around 250 taken captive to Gaza.

Netanyahu has been accused of prolonging Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon in a bid to delay legal action against him, including over alleged security failures on 7 October.

The prime minister’s office is currently facing a number of recently-revealed probes that are mostly under court-mandated gag order, according to TOI.

Maariv reported that investigation into the prime minister has been approved by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.

A source cited by Channel 12 said those around Netanyahu “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 has dismissed the allegations as being part of a “web of lies”.

In a separate investigation, four members of the Israeli army and a spokesman for Netanyahu were detained over the theft of classified army intelligence documents for political purposes.

A court in Israel said last week that the theft of the documents, some of which were leaked to foreign news outlets, harmed efforts to return Israeli captives.