JERUSALEM: Israeli police issued an arrest warrant for a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, accusing him of being implicated in two affairs involving the premier’s office.

Israel Einhorn, a former campaign adviser to Netanyahu who now lives in Serbia, appeared on a list of people whom the police suspect of involvement in the so-called “Bild affair” and are prevented from communicating with the prime minister’s office.

Next to Einhorn’s name a line was added saying there is a “pending arrest warrant against him,” according to a document submitted to the court.

“We can confirm the warrant,” a police spokesman told said.

The Bild affair involved the leaking of classified intelligence from the Israeli military to the German tabloid Bild in September 2024. Two other Netanyahu aides were arrested and indicted for the leak.

The document alleged that Hamas was not interested in a ceasefire agreement, and to support Netanyahu’s claim that the prisoners taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, could only be released through military pressure rather than negotiations.

Einhorn has not returned to Israel since the investigation was opened, but he was questioned by Israeli investigators in Serbia last year.

He is also a suspect in the so-called “Qatargate” scandal, in which he and other close associates of Netanyahu are accused of being recruited by Qatar to promote the Gulf country’s image in Israel.

Qatar hosts senior Hamas leaders and has played a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinian movement during the conflict in Gaza.

It also sent millions of dollars in cash to Gaza every month between 2018 and October 2023 to pay Hamas’s civil servants and for cash handouts to Palestinian families.

The news of the warrant came after the police detained a current senior aide to Netanyahu suspected of obstructing an investigation, with local media reporting that it was the premier’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2026