Israel PM attacks Qatar probe as 'witch hunt' after aides arrested

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced an investigation into possible links between his aides and Qatar as a "witch hunt", after he gave testimony to police.

An adviser and a former spokesman were arrested on Monday over alleged payments from the Gulf Arab state as part of the probe, which has been dubbed "Qatar-gate". They have denied any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu, who has not been named as a suspect, accused the police of holding the two men as "hostages", adding: "There is no case."

A Qatari official also dismissed the probe as a "smear campaign" against Qatar, which has played a key role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas during the war in Gaza.

It comes as Netanyahu faces escalating protests in Israel over his policies, including the resumption of Israel's offensive against Hamas before securing the release of all the remaining hostages, the dismissal of the director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, and the advancement of a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary.

On Monday, Israel's police force announced that two suspects had been detained as part of an investigation into ties between the prime minister's office and Qatar. It provided no further details, citing a court-imposed gag order on the case.

Israeli media reports subsequently identified them as Yonatan Urich, a very close adviser to Netanyahu, and Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman in the prime minister's office, and said they were suspected of contact with a foreign agent, money laundering, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

Netanyahu later cut short an appearance at his separate trial on corruption charges, which he denies, to provide recorded testimony to police investigating the case at his office in Jerusalem.

After being questioned, Netanyahu posted a video online in which he condemned both the arrests and the wider investigation.

"I understood that it was a political investigation but I didn't realise how political it was," he said. "They are holding Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein as hostages, making their lives miserable over nothing."

"There is no case, there is absolutely nothing, just a political witch hunt, nothing else."

The prime minister's Likud party also issued a statement accusing the attorney general's office and the Shin Bet chief of "fabricating" the case and attempting to "terrorise Yonatan Urich in order to extract from him false testimony against the prime minister through blackmail".

On Tuesday, a judge at Rishon LeZion Magistrates' Court extended Urich and Feldstein's detention by three days, saying there were "reasonable suspicions" that required a thorough investigation. The police had requested a nine-day extension.

Judge Menahem Mizrahi said in a decision that investigators suspected that the two men had acted to "promote Qatar in a positive light" and "spread negative messages about Egypt" and its role as another mediator in the Gaza ceasefire talks.

For this purpose, the judge said, a "business and economic connection" was created between a US lobbying firm working for Qatar "through the mediation of [Urich] in return for monetary payments which were passed to [Feldstein]" through an Israeli businessman.

Last week, Israeli media published a recording in which the businessman was heard saying that he had transferred funds to Feldstein on behalf of a US lobbyist working for Qatar.

At the time, Feldstein's lawyers said the payments were "for strategic and communications services Feldstein provided to the prime minister's office, not for Qatar". They also said Feldstein was not aware of any connection between the businessman and other parties, including Qatar. Ulrich's lawyers said he denied involvement.

A police representative told Judge Mizrahi on Tuesday that Urich was also suspected of passing journalists messages from a source linked to Qatar, which were presented as if they came from senior Israeli political or security officials.

Ulrich's legal team, which includes Netanyahu's defence lawyer Amit Hadad, said they would submit a request to lift the gag order on the case to expose "the injustice done to him". The judge went on to approve the request, saying the gag order had been repeatedly violated.

A Qatari official told the Financial Times: "This is not the first time we have been the subject of a smear campaign by those who do not want to see an end to this conflict [the Gaza war] or the remaining hostages returned to their families."

Qatar has long championed the Palestinian cause and host political leaders of Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK, the US and other countries.

Between 2018 and the start of the current war, which was triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, the Gulf state provided hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza.

Israeli governments allowed the money to be transferred to pay the wages of civil servants in Gaza's Hamas-run government, support the poorest families, and fund fuel deliveries for the territory's sole power plant. However, critics asserted that it was helping Hamas to stay in power and fund its military activities.

Since the war, Qatar has helped, along with the US and Egypt, to broker two ceasefire and hostage release deals between Israel and Hamas.

The most recent lasted between 19 January and 18 March, when Israel renewed its air and ground campaign, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal for an extension and the release of its 59 remaining hostages. Hamas accused Israel of violating the original deal.

Netanyahu claimed that the "sole purpose" of the Qatar-gate investigation was to prevent the dismissal of the director of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, which has been participating in the probe, and to "topple a right-wing prime minister".

The government fired Ronen Bar on 21 March, saying it had lost trust in him over the failure to prevent Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

However, the supreme court suspended the dismissal pending a hearing on 8 April in response to petitions from opposition political parties and a non-governmental organisation, which said the move was made for inappropriate reasons and constituted a severe conflict of interest.

Bar will remain in post until the supreme court rules on the petitions, although the court permitted the prime minister to interview potential replacements in the meantime.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu's office announced that he had reversed a decision made the previous day to appoint former navy commander Vice Adm Eli Sharvit as the next Shin Bet chief.

"The prime minister thanked Vice Adm Sharvit for his willingness to be called to duty but informed him that, after further consideration, he intends to examine other candidates," a statement said.

That decision came after Likud officials criticised Sharvit's participation in the 2023 mass protests against the judicial overhaul.

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also described Sharvit's appointment as "problematic" in response to a recent article criticising President Donald Trump's policies on climate change.