An Israeli court on Sunday loosened a gag order on a case investigating leaks of classified information suspected to involve one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s media advisers. Critics say the leaks were aimed at giving Netanyahu political cover as Gaza cease-fire talks ground to a halt.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, downplaying the affair and publicly calling for the gag order to be lifted. Netanyahu has said the person in question “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”

On Sunday, an Israeli court allowed the publication of the name of the central suspect in the case, Eli Feldstein, whom Israeli media said was one of Netanyahu’s media advisers. Israeli media reports say the case concerns the leak of classified information to two European media outlets, allegedly by Feldstein, who may not have been formally employed and did not have security clearance. The media reported Feldstein joined Netanyahu as an adviser weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and previously worked as an adviser to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The court did not release the names of three other suspects who are also being investigated in connection with the leak.

The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt, and an article in Germany's Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out the talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.

Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about the articles, which appeared to support Netanyahu's demands in the talks and absolve him of blame for their failure. Netanyahu made no mention of the case in a visit to Israel’s northern border with Israel Sunday, according to a video released by his office.

The articles came out as Netanyahu was calling for lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, a demand that was first made public over the summer. Hamas rejected the demand and accused Netanyahu of deliberately sabotaging the talks, which have been mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

The articles also seemed to provide political cover as Netanyahu faced intense criticism from the families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public, who blame him for the failure to reach a deal. The criticism reached a fever pitch in early September, with mass protests and calls for a general strike, after Hamas killed six hostages as Israeli troops closed in on them.

A court document confirmed that an investigation by police, the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency is underway and that a number of suspects have been arrested for questioning. It said the affair poses “a risk to sensitive information and sources" and “harms the achievement of the goals of the war in the Gaza Strip.”

The leak led to a scandal at the Jewish Chronicle, where prominent columnists resigned in protest over the discredited articles. The London-based newspaper removed the article in question and others by a freelance journalist, saying it was “not satisfied with some of his claims.”

The Bild article suggested Hamas was not serious about the negotiations and was using psychological warfare to stoke Israeli divisions. Netanyahu cited it in a meeting with his Cabinet after it was published.

He again defended the article in a statement released over the weekend, saying it had “exposed the Hamas methods of exerting psychological pressure from home and abroad on the Israeli government and public by blaming Israel for the failure of the talks to release the hostages.”

Netanyahu has sought to blame Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel ignited the war, for the failure of the talks. Hamas, which is still holding scores of hostages, has said it will only release them in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas says those demands have not changed following last month's killing of its top leader Yahya Sinwar, as the United States, Egypt and Qatar seek to restart the negotiations.

Netanyahu, often described by critics as image-obsessed, is on trial for corruption in three separate cases, two of which involve accusations that he gave favors to media moguls in exchange for positive coverage.

His office has downplayed the latest affair and accused the judiciary of bias, citing the many other leaks over the course of the war. It has also denied the leak in question had any impact on the cease-fire talks.

“The document only helped the effort to return the hostages, and certainly did not harm it,” Netanyahu's office said in a statement Saturday, adding that he only learned about the document when it was publicized.

His critics say the allegations are far more serious.

Yoav Limor, writing in the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom, called it “one of the gravest affairs Israel has ever known.”

“The damage it caused extends beyond the realm of national security and gives rise to suspicion that the prime minister’s bureau acted to scuttle a hostage deal, contrary to the war’s objectives.”

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Israel's Netanyahu says goal is to keep Hezbollah from border

During a visit to Israel's border with Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that Israel will do everything it can to remove the Hezbollah militia from the region.

Hezbollah must be pushed back to the north of the Litani river, which is about 30 kilometres from the border, Netanyahu said, according to statement issued by his office on Sunday.

Netanyahu has vowed to create conditions for the safe return of citizens to their homes in northern Israel. One of those conditions is to prevent Hezbollah from rearming in the future, the prime minister said.

"We are attacking in all parts of Lebanon," Netanyahu asserted. He added that Israel must react in a comprehensive way to any action against us.

Another goal that he mentioned is preventing arms shipments from Iran to Hezbollah via Syria.

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Attack on central Israel injures 11 as Iran's leader promises a punishing response

An attack on a central Israeli town early Saturday injured 11 people as Iran's supreme leader vowed a punishing response to Israel's attack last week and Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza and Lebanon.

The predawn strike on Tira was one of several barrages fired from Lebanon. Many of the projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses as air raid sirens rang out in parts of the country throughout the day, while others landed in unpopulated areas.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said 11 people were hurt by shrapnel and glass shards in a direct strike on a building in Tira, a predominantly Israeli Arab town. Footage showed significant damage to the roof and top floor of the three-story building and cars below.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said Saturday that it had used missiles and explosive drones to target military and intelligence facilities in northern and central Israel.

It claimed responsibility for firing missiles toward the Israeli military’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot, on the edge of Tel Aviv, and for firing rockets toward military facilities in Zvulun. Hezbollah also said it had targeted central Israel's Palmachim Air Base with explosive drones, saying they “scored precise hits on targets."

Israel's military did not confirm whether any of the three Hezbollah targets had been hit and said it had no comment on the group's claims.

Hezbollah said the Saturday dawn missile attack directed at Glilot was in retaliation for the “massacres” that are being committed by Israel. Tira, is about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from Glilot.

Tamar Abdel Hai, a resident of Tira, said that the attack was frightening. “I call upon all the leaders in the Arab world and the leaders in Israel and to everyone who can help to end this war. It’s enough,” he said.

Hezbollah also said that its fighters fired salvos of rockets into northern Israeli towns including Dalton, Yesud HaMa’ala and Bar Yohai.

Israeli media showed images of damage reportedly caused by a drone that hit a factory north of Nahariya. The army said several drones crossed from Lebanon into Israel, one was intercepted but “fallen targets were identified in the area.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Saturday afternoon killed one person and wounded 15 others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Israeli planes resumed strikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight Friday, following a four-day lull in the capital.

In a separate incident, a Lebanese ship captain was seized by armed men who landed on the coast of Batroun, north of Beirut, Lebanese authorities said.

The Israeli military later confirmed it had captured the man, which it described as a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon. It did not name the detainee and said he was being investigated on Israeli territory.

Iran threatens more attacks

The early Saturday attacks may be only a precursor to a more severe strike against Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with a punishing response over attacks on Iran and its allies following Israel's Oct. 26 airstrikes that targeted Iran's military bases and other locations.

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in a video released by Iranian state media.

A further attack by Iran, which has already launched two direct attacks against Israel this year, could push the wider Middle East closer to a broader conflict. Israel is already battling the Iran-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The fight against Hezbollah has weakened the group but has also taken a heavy toll on southern Lebanon and other parts of the country.

On Friday, Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, according to a Health Ministry update early Friday. United Nations agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people.

Residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon, roughly 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 42 people in 24 hours

In recent weeks, Israel has also stepped up its offensive against Hamas’ remaining fighters in Gaza, raising concerns about humanitarian conditions for civilians still there.

A series of Israeli strikes on Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, killed at least 42 people, more than half of them women and children, in 24 hours, Dr. Marwan Abu Naser, director of Al-Awda Hospital that received the casualties, told The Associated Press. A further 150 were wounded, he said.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a street in the nearby Bureij refugee camp killed at least six people, medical officials said. The dead were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah and counted by AP journalists there.

Separately, the Israeli military said that two of its soldiers were killed in southern Gaza.

Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News TV reported Saturday that Hamas has rejected a partial cease-fire deal in Gaza fearing that Israel will resume its operations in the enclave even after hostages are released. The TV channel has close ties to the Egyptian intelligence service and Egypt has been a key mediator throughout the yearlong conflict.

Hours later, senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq criticized the temporary cease-fire proposal describing it as “just a smoke screen.” Hamas has continually called for a complete end to the conflict and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a condition for any cease-fire deal with Israel.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization began a scaled-down polio vaccination campaign on Saturday, giving second doses to at-risk children only in Gaza City after providing first doses in multiple parts of northern Gaza, which has seen intense Israeli bombardment.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Health officials inside Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of the dead in the enclave are women and children.

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