A suspected leak of classified Gaza documents involving an aide
to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is jolting Israeli politics
and leading to outrage for the families of hostages held
by Hamas. A court ruling partially lifting a gag
order has provided an initial glimpse of the case which
the court said had compromised security sources and may have
harmed Israel's efforts to release the hostages. On Friday
, the Magistrates court confirmed that a number of suspects
had been arrested as part of a probe into a
suspected security breach caused by the illegal provision of classified
information. Pak a lawyer representing the forum for families
of hostages said on Sunday that the people have a
right to know the information despite potential security issues for
the last year, they have been waiting to hear
any intelligence or any information about any negotiation about the
release of those hostages. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing
by his office staffers and said in a statement on
Saturday that he was only made aware of the document
by the media. The suspects could not be reached
for comment details from the document in question were published
by Germany's Bild newspaper in September. According to Israeli
newspaper, Haaretz, one of the media outlets that
had appealed to the court to lift the gag order
. Around that time, the US Qatar and Egypt
were mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas that were
to include a deal to release the hostages but the
talks faltered with Israel and Hamas trading blame for the
deadlock. The article in question was published days after
six Israeli hostages were found executed in a tunnel in
southern Gaza. Their killing sparked mass protests in Israel
and from outraged hostage families who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing
the ceasefire talks for political reasons. On Sunday,
the court ordered one suspect to be released while keeping
others in remand. According to Israeli Channel 13 news --> .