A Netanyahu-Aligned Paper Says His Aides Fed Qatar Intelligence on Egypt, Reversing the Flow Investigators Assumed

Israel Hayom reported at 13:05 Israel time on Sunday that three Netanyahu aides — Jonatan Urich, Yisrael Einhorn and Eli Feldstein — passed classified information to Qatar concerning possible Egyptian violations of the 1979 peace treaty, which Doha then channelled back to Israeli reporters. The material is said to derive from meetings between March and May 2024 involving Netanyahu, the National Security Council, the IDF and the Shin Bet, which examined whether Egypt was breaching the treaty by moving forces into Sinai; articles on alleged Egyptian violations duly appeared in the Israeli press in 2024 and early 2025. Per the Times of Israel, Einhorn and Urich denied the account; Feldstein and the Prime Minister’s Office declined to respond. The paper’s ownership matters to the reading: Israel Hayom is Netanyahu-aligned, which makes the story unusual rather than discountable.

The alleged direction is the new element. In the Qatargate case as investigators had built it, information flowed from Qatar through the aides into the Israeli press. Urich and Feldstein have been arrested and questioned; Einhorn, resident in Serbia, was recently questioned by Israeli investigators in Belgrade after declining to travel to Israel for fear of arrest. Police concluded the investigation in January 2026 and the file awaits a prosecutorial determination on whether national security was harmed. Netanyahu, who has testified, calls it a witch hunt. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid responded by noting that Likud torpedoed his proposed legislation designating Qatar an enemy state. Naftali Bennett, who on 4 August said Netanyahu had “gave the Qataris the keys to Gaza,” called Qatar a “venomous enemy” whose influence over Gaza he would work to erase if elected.

Assessment: The load-bearing question is not whether the allegation is true but why this outlet published it now. A pro-Netanyahu daily printing the most damaging version of Qatargate yet — one in which Israeli classified material travelled outward — is either evidence of a real split inside the camp or an attempt to define the story on friendly terms before prosecutors decide the national-security question. Note also that the alleged operation targeted Egypt, the treaty partner and Gaza mediator, which is why Lapid and Bennett moved straight to Qatar’s standing rather than to the aides. Nothing here is confirmed; two of three principals deny it and the PMO has said nothing.