The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had requested to join a request to lift the gag order on the leak of sensitive material to the media, after his office spokesman was accused of leaking classified information, leading to a government crisis.

She said that Netanyahu's spokesman - the main suspect in leaking classified information from his office - had not received his salary for months, had failed to obtain a security clearance, and had been forced to leave his position, but had continued to work effectively for Netanyahu.

She stressed that the leak case in Netanyahu's office sparked an unprecedented crisis between the political and security levels in Israel.

Leak details

For its part, Maariv newspaper reported that information it described as confidential was stolen from the Military Intelligence Division and ended up in the hands of one of Netanyahu's men, and from there to the foreign media.

Netanyahu's spokesman leaked "top secret" documents that were forged to the German newspaper Bild and the British newspaper Jewish Chronicle.

Netanyahu's office claimed that the leaked documents were found on a private computer belonging to the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), with the aim of influencing public opinion in Israel regarding the prisoner exchange negotiations.

The leaked documents claim that the late Hamas political bureau chief Yahya Sinwar was not interested in a swap deal and was seeking to smuggle the detainees to Iran.

According to Israeli intelligence expert Ronen Bergman, the Israeli security leadership confirmed that what was stated in the leaked documents was not true.

He added that the leaking of forged documents to the foreign press led to a lack of trust between the security and military levels on the one hand and the political and governmental levels on the other.

According to Bergman, the anger centered around two publications published by the German newspaper Bild and the British newspaper Jewish Chronicle, in early September, which were claimed to be secret internal documents of the Hamas leadership and reflect the atmosphere within the movement’s top leadership and the orders issued by its leader, Yahya Sinwar, with the aim of entrenching and deepening divisions within Israeli society and disintegrating it.

Media expert Nir Hefetz confirmed in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 that Netanyahu has a strong relationship with the owners of the German newspaper Bild, which published these forged documents.

impose censorship

The scandal of these forged documents has returned to occupy the Israeli media after the military censor imposed a strict ban on the details, after the security services arrested senior officials from Netanyahu's office, who quickly denied any connection to the prime minister.

The American website Axios suggested that the arrests that took place were "the biggest scandal within the Israeli government since the beginning of the war in Gaza."

He pointed out that the leaks scandal is likely to deepen the state of mistrust and tension between Netanyahu and the army and intelligence services.

Haaretz newspaper said - in an analysis by its chief analyst Yossi Verter - that when the ban is lifted, the facts will be revealed, and it will become clear that Netanyahu's office is made up of corruption that serves his interests, and that this is evidence that Netanyahu has installed a criminal organization above Israel and its national security interests to serve him.