On the morning that Hamas raided Israel last year, a top Israeli general called his prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to tell him that hundreds of militants appeared to be preparing to invade.

Now, aides to the prime minister are under investigation for altering details about that call in the official record of Netanyahu’s activities that day, according to four officials briefed on the investigation.

The investigation is seen as deeply sensitive in Israel, where the question of what Netanyahu knew in advance of Hamas’ invasion, and when he was told, could prove crucial to his political future. It is expected to play a key part in a postwar assessment of the role political and military leaders may have played in one of the worst military failures in Israel’s history.

The accusation is just one of several leveled at Netanyahu’s aides in recent weeks. While Netanyahu himself is not a subject of a police inquiry, officials in his office are under investigation for trying to bolster his reputation throughout Israel’s war with Hamas by leaking classified military documents, altering official transcripts of his conversations and intimidating people who controlled access to those records.

Though disparate and complex, the cases have helped foster the impression among Netanyahu’s critics that his team has used illicit means to improve how he is perceived, at the expense of either the truth or national security, or both. Netanyahu and his office have denied the accusations, countering that it is his accusers who, by spreading falsehoods, have undermined Israel at a time of national peril.

The full extent of the new claims has not been revealed because most of them are subject to a gag order. Officials who told The New York Times about the investigations did so on the condition of anonymity because they were barred from speaking publicly about the matter.

transcripts

On the day that Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the prime minister spoke frequently by phone with senior security officials, including with his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil.

Police officers are assessing if aides to the prime minister secretly changed the records of those phone calls, according to the four officials briefed on the investigation.

The investigation began after Gil, who left his post in May, complained in writing to the attorney general that the official transcripts of the calls he had that morning with the prime minister appeared to have been altered, the officials said. Gil said in his complaint that a senior aide to the prime minister had forced one of the transcribers to doctor the transcripts, the officials said.

In one of the conversations early on Oct. 7, Gil told the prime minister that hundreds of Hamas operatives had started behaving in a way that suggested that they may be about to invade Israel, according to three officials briefed on the investigation. The timing of that call is one of the details that is said to have been changed in the official transcripts.

The content and timing of these calls are important because they could help shape the way Netanyahu is seen by both voters and historians.

For more than a year, Netanyahu has denied being briefed in advance about the invasion. He has avoided setting up a state inquiry to assess the culpability of Israel’s military and political leaders, including himself.

Embarrassing Video

The forgery case has been compounded by fears that an aide to Netanyahu intimidated a military officer who controlled access to the phone records, according to four officials briefed on the incident.

The officer was filmed on a security camera installed in the prime minister’s headquarters committing an act that could cause him personal embarrassment, the officials said.

After the incident, a senior aide to the prime minister approached the officer and told him that he had obtained a video of the embarrassing act, the officials said. The senior aide was the same person accused of ordering the transcriber to tamper with the records of Netanyahu’s conversations, according to the officials.

The officer told his commanders about the approach, saying that he feared that the aide might use the video to blackmail him in the future, the officials said.

A Leaked Document

Netanyahu’s aides are also accused of secretly giving a sensitive document to a foreign news outlet, according to six officials briefed on the case.

The document was published in early September, as Netanyahu came under pressure from large parts of Israeli society to agree a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would allow for the release of dozens of hostages held by the group.

Netanyahu argued against a truce, saying that the terms of the deal would allow Hamas to regroup. His stance infuriated many of the hostages’ families.