JERUSALEM — Israeli police investigators questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for three hours at his official residence Monday evening on suspicion of receiving illicit gifts and favors from business executives.
Netanyahu was questioned “under caution,’’ police said in a statement, implying that there were grounds to suspect that Netanyahu might have committed a criminal offense. “No further details can be given at this stage,’’ the statement added.
Netanyahu, who has been subject to police inquiries and investigations in the past that ended without charges, has vehemently denied any impropriety. “This will all come to nothing, because there is nothing,’’ he has said repeatedly of the latest accusations.
Local news outlets say the investigators are focused on two separate cases, one more serious than the other, but they have offered little detail on the more serious one.
The less weighty one, according to the Haaretz newspaper and other outlets, concerns favors for Netanyahu, and possibly for members of his family, given by Israeli and foreign business executives.
Israeli police took testimony from Ronald S. Lauder, a conservative US businessman and philanthropist, and a close friend of Netanyahu’s, when he came to Israel in late September to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former prime minister and president.
Netanyahu’s office, suggesting that he is the victim of a witch hunt, issued a statement over the weekend berating the news organizations for what it described as premature and politically motivated reports. “Try to replace the prime minister at the ballot boxes, as is accepted in democracies,’’ it added.
In televised remarks Monday afternoon, Netanyahu told legislators from his conservative Likud Party in Parliament, “We hear the celebratory spirit and winds blowing through the television studios and in the corridors of the opposition.’’
“Hold off the celebrations; don’t rush,’’ he added.
Netanyahu is serving his third consecutive term in office, and his fourth overall. He has exuded confidence lately, lashing out at journalists who have been critical of him, and talking up Israel’s diplomatic and economic achievements.
He called in the US ambassador to Israel, Daniel B. Shapiro, for a dressing down late last month after the Obama administration decided not to use its veto to shield Israel from a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
After years of tension with the Obama administration, Netanyahu appears buoyed by the prospect of a partnership with President-elect Donald Trump, who seems more sympathetic to Israeli government policies on issues like settlements.
For his opponents, the prospect of a possible indictment has provided a glimmer of hope even though elections are not scheduled until late 2019.
“This creates an unusual dynamic in Israeli politics,’’ said Nahum Barnea, a political columnist for the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth and a critic of Netanyahu.
On the one hand, Barnea said, there were already signs that Netanyahu loyalists would try to promote legislation banning investigations of sitting prime ministers. On the other, he said, the question of who might succeed Netanyahu, who has no natural heir in his party, was bound to be raised.
Opposition leaders were fairly subdued in their initial response. Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid Party said, “The presumption of innocence applies to every Israeli, including the prime minister.’’
