The arrest of the former chief legal officer of Israel’s military has intensified a growing political crisis sparked by a leaked video that allegedly depicts Israeli soldiers brutally mistreating a Palestinian detainee.
Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who stepped down as the Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last week, announced that she “took full responsibility for the leak.”
On Sunday, the situation grew more alarming after reports surfaced that she had gone missing, prompting a police search that lasted several hours along a beach north of Tel Aviv.
Authorities later confirmed she was found “alive and well,” though she was subsequently detained for questioning.
Public outrage and political tension surrounding the leaked footage continue to intensify.
The video, first made public in August 2024, reportedly shows reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel isolating a Palestinian detainee before surrounding him with shields and allegedly assaulting him, including stabbing him in the rectum with a sharp instrument.
The victim required medical treatment for severe injuries following the incident.
Five reservists were later charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm. They have denied any wrongdoing, and their identities have not been disclosed.
On Sunday, four of the accused appeared outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem wearing black balaclavas, alongside their defense attorneys, who called for their trial to be dismissed.
One of the lawyers argued that his clients had been subjected to “a faulty, biased and completely cooked-up legal process.”
A formal investigation into the video leak began last week, and Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was suspended during the inquiry.
By Friday, the defense minister announced that she would not be reinstated to her former position.
Shortly afterward, she tendered her resignation.
In her letter, she accepted “full responsibility for any material that was released to the media from the unit.”
“I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army’s law enforcement authorities,” she said.
This was widely seen as a reference to claims by right-wing figures who alleged that the abuse accusations were fabricated.
She also stated: “It is our duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of acts of violence against a detainee.”
Following her resignation, the defense minister strongly criticized her actions, declaring, “Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army’s uniform.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later reinforced those remarks, describing the Sde Teiman case as “perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”
Only hours after his statement, news broke that Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was missing, raising concerns that the political controversy might have taken a tragic turn.
After an extensive search operation, police confirmed she had been found “safe and in good health” in Herzliya.
Later that night, a police spokesperson revealed that two individuals had been taken into custody on suspicion of “leaking and other serious criminal offences.”
Reports identified the two as Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi and former chief military prosecutor Col Matan Solomosh.
The Sde Teiman case has become a symbol of the deep ideological rift dividing Israel’s political spectrum.
Conservatives have denounced the video’s release as a betrayal of national loyalty and an attack on the military’s reputation.
When military police arrived at the base in July 2024 to question 11 reservists, far-right demonstrators — including several lawmakers from the ruling coalition — stormed the compound in protest.
Progressive voices, however, view Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi’s authorization of the video’s release as an act of integrity consistent with her legal duty.
To them, the footage serves as crucial proof supporting claims of systemic abuse of Palestinian detainees following the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks.
A UN inquiry released in October 2023 concluded that thousands of detainees, including both children and adults from Gaza, had been “subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
Israel’s authorities dismissed those allegations, insisting they were “fully committed to international legal standards” and asserting that thorough investigations had been conducted into every reported case.
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