Israeli Prime Minister attacks Qatar Sanda as a “witch hunt” after arrested assistants

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned an investigation into possible relationships between his assistants and Qatar as a “witch hunt” after testifying to police.

An advisor and a former spokesman were arrested on Monday for alleged payments from the Arab state in the Persian Gulf as part of the probe called the Qatar Porta. They denied any misconduct.

Netanyahu, who was not referred to as a suspect, accused the police of holding the two men like “hostage”, adding, “No case.”

A Qatar employee also rejected the survey as a “spreading campaign” against Qatar, which played a key role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas during the Gaza War.

He comes when Netanyahu faces escalating protests in Israel because of his policy, including the renewal of Israel’s offensive against Hamas, before ensuring all the other hostages release, the removal of the Director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, and the progress of the contradictory plan to turn the court.

On Monday, Israel’s police forces announced that two suspects had been detained as part of an investigation into links between the Prime Minister’s cabinet and Qatar. He did not provide more details, citing a court order imposed in the case.

Subsequently, the Israeli media reports defined them as Jonathan Urich, a very close counselor of Netanyahu, and Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman in the Prime Minister’s office, and said they were suspected of contacting a foreign agent, money laundering, bribery, fraud and confidence.

Later, Netanyahu has shortened the expression of his individual corruption allegations, which he denies in order to give records to the police investigating the case in his cabinet in Jerusalem.

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

“I realized it was a political investigation, but I didn’t realize how political it was,” he said. “They keep Jonathan Urich and Eli Feldstein as hostage, making their lives unhappy 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 Prosecutor General and the chief of the shin of the “inventing” of the case and tries to “terrorize Jonathan Urich to extract false testimony against the Prime Minister by Blackmail.”

On Tuesday, a judge at the Rishon Magistrate Court lesion extended the retention of Urich and Feldstein to three days, stating that there were “reasonable suspicions” that require a thorough investigation. Police have requested a nine -day extension.

Judge Menachhem Misrachi said in a decision that investigators suspected the two men acted to “promote Qatar in positive light” and “spread negative messages about Egypt” and his role as another mediator in ending the Gaza fire.

To this end, the judge said, a “business and economic connection” was created between a US lobbying company working for Qatar through (Urich) in exchange for cash payments that were handed over to (Feldstein) through an Israeli businessman.

Last week, Israeli media published a record that heard the businessman, saying he had transferred Feldstein funds on behalf of an American lobbyist working for Qatar.

At that time, Feldstein’s attorneys said payments were “for strategic and communication services that Feldstein provides to the Prime Minister’s office, not Qatar.” They also said that Feldstein was not familiar with a relationship between businessman and other countries, including Qatar. Ulrich’s lawyers said he denied his participation.

A police representative told Judge Misrachi on Tuesday that Urich was also suspected of submitting reports to journalists from a Qatar -related source that had been presented as if they had come from higher Israeli political or security officers.

Ulrich’s legal team, which includes Netanyahu Amita Hadad’s lawyer, said they would apply for the removal of the GAG ​​order in the case to reveal “the injustice made to him.” The judge continued to approve the request, saying that the GAG ​​order had been repeatedly violated.

A Qatari employee told The Financial Times: “This is not the first time we have been the subject of a spreading campaign by those who do not want to see the end of this conflict (the war in Gaza) or the other hostages returned to their families.”

Qatar has long supported the Palestinian Caus and hosted Hamas political leaders, which was prescribed as a terrorist organization from Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.

Between 2018 and the beginning of the present war, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, the Gulf state provided hundreds of millions of dollars aid to gas.

Israeli governments have allowed the money to be transferred to pay the salaries of civil servants in the Gaza Hamas government, to support the poorest families and to deliver funding for fuel supplies for the only power plant in the territory. Critics, however, say it helps Hamas stay in power and finance his military activities.

After the war, Qatar helped, along with the United States and Egypt, to mediate two deals to end the fire and hostage between Israel and Hamas.

The latter continued between January 19 and March 18, when Israel renewed its campaign for the air and ground, accusing Hamas of rejecting a new proposal in the United States for extending and releasing its 59 remaining hostages. Hamas accused Israel of breaking the original deal.

Netanyahu claims that the “only goal” of Qatar Porta’s investigation is to prevent the Director of the Director of the Shin Bet Homeland Security Agency, which is involved in the probe and “overtook the right prime minister.”

The Government fired Ronen’s March 21st, saying it lost confidence in it because of the failure to prevent Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, causing the war in Gaza.

However, the Supreme Court stopped the dismissal in anticipation of a hearing on April 8 in response to petitions by opposition political parties and a non -governmental organization, which stated that this move was made for inappropriate reasons and was a serious conflict of interest.

The lawyer will remain on post until the Supreme Court manages the petitions, although the court has allowed the Prime Minister to interview potential replacements in the meantime.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu’s cabinet announced that he had annulled a decision in which he had made the previous day to appoint the former Navy commander, Deputy Adeli Eli Shawit for the next boss of Shin’s bet.

“The prime minister thanks Vice Adm Sharvit for his desire to be called on duty, but informs him that after a further consideration, he intends to consider other candidates,” the statement said.

This decision came after Likud officials criticized the participation of Sharvit in the mass protests in 2023 against court repairs.

Republican US Senator Lindsay Graham also described the appointment of Charrvite as “problematic” in response to a recent article criticizing President Donald Trump’s policies on climate change.