Report: AG expected to charge Netanyahu aides with security offenses in Qatargate affair

Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is expected to decide that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein should face national security charges in the so-called Qatargate affair, Channel 13 news reported on Tuesday.

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According to the network, a former senior Mossad official suspected in the case is also expected to be charged, pending a hearing.

The Shin Bet and Mossad have yet to submit their final assessment of the affair, but Justice Ministry officials cited by Channel 13 believe there is “sufficient evidence” to charge the suspects with contact with a foreign agent.

Urich and Feldstein are both key suspects in the Qatargate affair, which primarily revolves around suspicions that they committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while simultaneously working for the prime minister.

Channel 13 previously reported that the Mossad would be responsible for determining whether Urich and Feldstein, and fellow Netanyahu adviser Yisrael Einhorn, should face national security charges.

But Mossad chief Roman Gofman, who served as Netanyahu’s military secretary before his appointment to the intelligence agency in June, could face a conflict of interest due to his ties to the suspects, according to the report. Officials were reportedly examining whether he should be barred from signing the agency’s assessment.

Urich and Feldstein were both arrested and questioned in March 2025 for their suspected role in the affair and have been under investigation ever since, while Einhorn, who resides in Serbia, has refused to return to Israel for fear of arrest upon arrival. He was recently questioned about the case in Belgrade.

In parallel with the Qatargate affair, Urich was also indicted in June on charges of transmitting classified information with intent to harm state security, over his involvement in a leak of classified documents to the press.

The charge relates to Urich’s role in the leak of a classified document from IDF military intelligence to Germany’s Bild tabloid in September 2024, apparently as part of an effort to buttress Netanyahu’s claim that it was Hamas, not the prime minister, that was holding up a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza.

On Sunday, the Israel Hayom daily reported that Urich, Feldstein, and Einhorn were also suspected of leaking information to Doha about Israeli concerns regarding Egypt’s role in negotiations with Hamas during the Gaza war.

The report, which sourced an unnamed Israeli security official, alleged that the Qataris then leaked the information they got from the trio to Israeli reporters as part of a campaign aimed at downgrading Cairo in the eyes of the Israeli public, creating room for Doha to take the lead role in negotiations for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack.

The leaks came from meetings in March-May 2024 involving Netanyahu, the National Security Council, the IDF, and the Shin Bet, which examined Israel-Egypt ties and whether Egypt was violating the terms of the 1979 peace agreement by dispatching forces into Sinai.

Articles on ostensible Egyptian violations appeared in the Israeli press in 2024 and early 2025.

Qatargate investigators already believed that the three received information from Qatar and fed it to Israeli reporters, but Sunday’s revelations appeared to show that the flow of information went in both directions.

Both the Bild and Qatargate affairs have become major political liabilities for Netanyahu, sparking accusations from critics regarding alleged conflicts of interest and graft among his closest advisers.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.

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