The Chief of Staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being investigated by police over allegations of altering documents relating to the 7 October Hamas attack to portray his boss in a more favourable light.
Tzachi Braverman, one of Netanyahu’s closest advisors, was questioned by the Israeli police Lahav 433 major crimes unit for over five hours on Thursday, according to reports in Israeli media.
Detectives have confirmed an investigation is under way.
The accusation is focused around two telephone calls that Netanyahu received as the Hamas cross border raid was unfolding on 7 October 2023.
Braverman is suspected of having altered the documented time when Netanyahu first received an update on the attack via a telephone call from his military secretary at the time, Major General Avi Gil.
The chief of staff is accused of changing the time from 06:40 to 06:29.
He denies having altered the transcript of the call other than to change the time.
“I know that the first call was received at 06:29, that’s why I insisted on changing it,” he is reported to have told detectives during the interrogation.
While Gil had phoned Netanyahu at 06:29, as the Hamas attack began, Netanyahu did not give any instructions, telling him instead to phone again in 10 minutes, at 06:40, according to a report in the Haaretz newspaper,
It was only during the second phone call for which Braverman allegedly altered the time stamp to appear as though it was the first, that Netanyahu ordered Gil to hold a situational assessment on the developing Hamas invasion, Haaretz reported.
The allegation is that Braverman altered the time, in order to give the impression that the prime minister had acted more urgently and more decisively.
The chief of staff denies that.
The 7 October attack was the biggest military and intelligence failure in Israel’s history.
Several senior military officials have already resigned over it.
Netanyahu has consistently denied any personal failure.
His critics though, believe it is the prime minister who was ultimately responsible for the failure to prevent the deadliest attack on the country since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Various investigations are under way into the military and intelligence failures and Netanyahu has rejected claims he is stalling on demands for a full-scale inquiry.
This potential scandal is in its infancy, but it could go on to seriously undermine the Prime Minister’s position.
And it comes at a time when Netanyahu is mid-way through a trial facing corruption charges. He is due to testify in that trial next month, having failed to have the case thrown own, believing it is a political witch-hunt.