The Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday heard the request of reservist NCO Ari Rosenfeld, who is the accused in the classified documents affair in the Prime Minister’s Office, to reconsider the decision to keep him in custody until the end of the proceedings.
At the end of the hearing, the judge ordered the prosecution to adhere to the opinion of the Shin Bet and the Israel Prisons Service as soon as possible. The Shin Bet head had previously stated that there was no danger and no need to keep Ari in custody.
At the very beginning of the hearing, the prosecution requested that the hearing be held behind closed doors, due to the risk in the case, but the judge rejected the request. About a week ago, the State Attorney’s Office opposed holding a new hearing on the issue of Rosenfeld’s release.
As his physical condition continues to deteriorate in prison, where he has been since his arrest on November 3, 2024, Rosenfeld, accused of leaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a Hamas document the IDF brass had been keeping hidden, has been desperately trying to be granted house arrest.
Supreme Court Justice Alex Stein ruled on December 9 that Eli Feldstein, a spokesman for Netanyahu, would be released to electronically monitored house arrest, but the Intelligence Division’s NCO Rosenfeld, who was accused alongside him in the classified information leak affair, would remain in detention until a different decision is made in his case. This was decided as part of an appeal hearing filed by the prosecution after the Tel Aviv District Court decided to release the two to house arrest.
On September 6, 2024, the German newspaper Bild published content from a secret document that described Hamas’s negotiating strategy with Israel. The report stated that a document found on a computer that apparently belonged to Yahya Sinwar––then head of Hamas’ political bureau––contained instructions for reaching a ceasefire that were personally approved by Sinwar. According to the document, Hamas did not seek to quickly end the war but rather sought to improve the terms of the agreement, even if this would lead to a prolongation of the conflict.
The document indicated that Hamas’s strategy was based on psychological pressure on the families of the hostages to increase public pressure on the Israeli government, exhaust Israel’s political and military resources, and increase international pressure on the Israeli side.
