Jerusalem- Until last week, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was the Israeli army's top lawyer. Now she is behind bars and at the centre of a scandal rocking the country after a bizarre sequence of events that included her abrupt resignation, a brief disappearance and a frantic search that led authorities to find her on a Tel Aviv beach.

The soap opera-worthy saga was touched off last week by Tomer-Yerushalmi's explosive admission that she approved the leak of a surveillance video at the centre of a politically divisive investigation into allegations of severe abuse against a Palestinian at a notorious Israeli military prison.

The video shows part of an assault in which Israeli soldiers are accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.

By leaking the video last year, Tomer-Yerushalmi aimed to expose the seriousness of the allegations her office was investigating. Instead, it triggered fierce criticism from Israel's hard-line political leaders.

After Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned under pressure last week, her critics continued to heave personal insults.

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