Israel Police question aide of Netanyahu over alleged tampering of phone records

Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff has been questioned by police investigating reports that official phone records of calls from aides to the Israeli prime minister on the morning of the 7 October attacks last year were altered.

- Jason Burke

Israeli media reported that Tzachi Braverman is suspected of changing the recorded time of a conversation Netanyahu held with his military secretary in the first minutes of the attack to protect the prime minister.

Netanyahu's office has denied the allegation, accusing critics of "another complete fabrication that is also part of an unprecedented media witch hunt against the prime minister's office during wartime, designed to whitewash the grave failures of others on the night of 7 October", according to the Times of Israel newspaper.

Braverman, too, has called the charges against him "severe slander" and "wild incitement", the newspaper said.

The inquiry could be damaging for Netanyahu, who has fought off loud calls in Israel for a public inquiry into the multiple failures that meant Israel was caught out by the attack from Gaza last year.