Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi was summoned by police Wednesday to give testimony in the Bild leak affair, in which aides to the prime minister are suspected of leaking classified intelligence to the German tabloid in the summer of 2024 in order to influence Israeli public opinion in favor of hostage negotiations with Hamas.

Halevi, who led the military at the time that the classified documents were leaked, is not a suspect in the affair and was not questioned under caution, according to Hebrew media reports.

Halevi reportedly testified for some six hours later in the day.

Halevi’s summons and testimony came days after Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, was detained and questioned under caution for several hours over suspicions he attempted to obstruct the investigation into the leak. Braverman has since been barred from communicating with Netanyahu or entering the Prime Minister’s Office.

Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, the key suspect in the affair, alleged last month that Braverman knew of a covert investigation into the leak months before it was publicized and had assured Feldstein that he’d be able to quash the probe.

In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster, his first media appearance since his arrest in 2024, Feldstein said Braverman asked to meet him late at night in an underground parking lot in the Kirya military headquarters, where he informed him that the IDF had launched an investigation into the leak.

Braverman allegedly told........

© The Times of Israel