Israel’s former Military Advocate General, Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, has been arrested as a political fight widens over a leaked video that allegedly shows severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers.
Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last week, saying she accepted full responsibility for the leak. On Sunday she was reported missing, prompting an hours-long search on a beach north of Tel Aviv. Police later said she was found alive and well, then taken into custody.
“Leaks divide. Facts decide.”
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What we Know
The fallout from the footage has escalated steadily. The video, broadcast in August 2024 by an Israeli channel, shows reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel leading a detainee aside, forming a wall of riot shields, and allegedly beating him and inflicting injuries with a sharp object. The detainee required treatment for severe injuries.
Five reservists have been charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm. They deny the allegations and have not been named. On Sunday four of them appeared outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem with their lawyers, faces covered by black balaclavas, and called for the case to be thrown out. Attorney Adi Keidar of the right-wing legal group Honenu said the process was faulty and biased.
On Monday it emerged that the detainee at the center of the case was released to Gaza in October as part of an exchange between Israel and Hamas involving convicted prisoners and detainees held without charge for hostages taken on 7 October 2023.
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What Happening
A criminal probe into the leak began last week. Tomer-Yerushalmi was placed on leave during the inquiry. On Friday Defense Minister Israel Katz said she would not return to her role, and she resigned shortly afterward. In her resignation letter she wrote that she approved releasing material to the media to counter what she called false propaganda against the army’s law-enforcement bodies, and that it is the military’s duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of violence against a detainee.
Katz condemned her conduct, saying anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the uniform. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the criticism on Sunday and called the Sde Teiman affair perhaps the most severe public relations attack Israel has faced since its founding.
Hours later Israeli media reported that Tomer-Yerushalmi was missing, sparking fears of a deeper crisis. After she was found safe in Herzliya, police announced two arrests on suspicion of leaking and other serious offenses. Israeli outlets reported the two were Tomer-Yerushalmi and former chief military prosecutor Col Matan Solomosh.
Facts
The Sde Teiman case has become a flashpoint in Israel’s right-left divide. Critics on the right portray the leak as a defamation of the military and close to treason. After military police questioned 11 reservists in July 2024, far-right protesters, including at least three coalition lawmakers, entered the base to show support. On the left, Tomer-Yerushalmi’s decision to allow the footage to air is seen as one of the few moments when the system met its responsibility, and the video is cited as visual corroboration of wider reports of detainee abuse since the 7 October attacks.
A UN commission reported last October that detainees from Gaza had been subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence and sexual and gender-based violence that it said could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel’s government rejects allegations of widespread ill-treatment and torture, says it is fully committed to international law, and says it investigates every complaint.
