A former close aide to Benjamin Netanyahu said that immediately after the attack carried out by “Hamas“ on October 7, 2023, which caused the two-year war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli prime minister ordered him to examine how he could avoid taking responsibility for the security breach, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
Netanyahu's former spokesman Eli Feldstein, who is on trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the media, made the accusation during a long interview with the Israeli television “Kan“ last night.
Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept responsibility for the deadliest attack in Israeli history. Little is known about the prime minister's behavior in the days immediately following the attack, however, amid his continued opposition to an independent government investigation, the AP summarizes.
Before “Kan“ Feldstein said that “the first task“ he received from Netanyahu on Oct. 7, 2023, was to suppress calls for accountability.
“He asked me: “What is the news talking about? Are they still talking about accountability?“, Feldstein said. "He wanted me to think of something that could be said to defuse the media storm surrounding whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not," the former spokesman added.
He added that Netanyahu appeared "panicked" when he made his request. Feldstein added that he later spoke with people close to the Israeli prime minister to drop the word "responsibility" of all the statements.
Netanyahu's office called last night's interview “a long series of false and repetitive accusations made by a man with clear vested interests who seeks to deflect responsibility from himself“, the Hebrew Media reported.
Feldstein's statements came after he was accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve the prime minister's public image after the killing of six hostages in Gaza last year.
He is also suspected of involvement in the "Qatargate" scandal - one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while working for the prime minister.