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Ex-top lawyer in Israeli army gets arrested over leaked video
(MENAFN) The former chief legal officer of the Israeli military has been taken into custody as a political controversy intensifies over a leaked video allegedly showing severe mistreatment of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers.
Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last week as Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), accepting full responsibility for the leak. On Sunday, she was reported missing, prompting a large-scale search along a beach north of Tel Aviv. Authorities later confirmed she was found unharmed but subsequently arrested.
The leaked footage, first broadcast in August 2024, reportedly depicts reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel isolating a detainee, obscuring him with riot shields, and allegedly subjecting him to physical assault and rectal stabbing with a sharp object. The detainee required medical treatment for severe injuries. Five reservists were charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm, but they have denied the allegations.
On Sunday, four of the accused appeared outside Jerusalem’s Supreme Court wearing black balaclavas. Their lawyer, Adi Keidar from the right-wing legal aid group Honenu, argued that the case represents “a faulty, biased and completely cooked-up legal process” and called for dismissal of the trial.
The detainee central to the case was reportedly released to Gaza in October 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange with Hamas.
The criminal investigation into the leak began last week, during which Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi was placed on leave. Defence Minister Israel Katz later declared she would not return to her post, prompting her resignation. In her letter, she stated she authorized the media release to counter “false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities” and stressed that it is “our duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of acts of violence against a detainee.”
Following her resignation, Katz condemned her actions, saying, “Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army's uniform.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also criticized the incident, calling it “perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”
Hours after her disappearance, authorities launched a major search, eventually locating Gen.
Tomer-Yerushalmi in Herzliya. Overnight, police confirmed the arrest of two individuals connected to the leak, including Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi and former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomosh, in relation to “leaking and other serious criminal offences.”
Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last week as Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), accepting full responsibility for the leak. On Sunday, she was reported missing, prompting a large-scale search along a beach north of Tel Aviv. Authorities later confirmed she was found unharmed but subsequently arrested.
The leaked footage, first broadcast in August 2024, reportedly depicts reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel isolating a detainee, obscuring him with riot shields, and allegedly subjecting him to physical assault and rectal stabbing with a sharp object. The detainee required medical treatment for severe injuries. Five reservists were charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm, but they have denied the allegations.
On Sunday, four of the accused appeared outside Jerusalem’s Supreme Court wearing black balaclavas. Their lawyer, Adi Keidar from the right-wing legal aid group Honenu, argued that the case represents “a faulty, biased and completely cooked-up legal process” and called for dismissal of the trial.
The detainee central to the case was reportedly released to Gaza in October 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange with Hamas.
The criminal investigation into the leak began last week, during which Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi was placed on leave. Defence Minister Israel Katz later declared she would not return to her post, prompting her resignation. In her letter, she stated she authorized the media release to counter “false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities” and stressed that it is “our duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of acts of violence against a detainee.”
Following her resignation, Katz condemned her actions, saying, “Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army's uniform.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also criticized the incident, calling it “perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”
Hours after her disappearance, authorities launched a major search, eventually locating Gen.
Tomer-Yerushalmi in Herzliya. Overnight, police confirmed the arrest of two individuals connected to the leak, including Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi and former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomosh, in relation to “leaking and other serious criminal offences.”
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