Former top Israeli military legal officer arrested after admitting to leaking video of alleged detainee abuse

The former top legal official of Israel’s military was arrested after admitting that she authorized the leak of a video that appears to show Israeli soldiers attacking a Palestinian detainee in a detention center last year.

Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi served as Military Attorney General of the Israel Defense Forces until Friday, October 31, when she admitted in a resignation letter to approving the leak of the video clip to Israeli media.

She called her actions “an attempt to counter false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities,” following a backlash from members of Israel’s far-right against her department’s investigation into the alleged abuse of a Palestinian prisoner.

Israeli media have reported that Tomer-Yerushalmi will be questioned by investigators and could face charges including obstruction of justice. Until recently, the department she headed was conducting an investigation into the same video leak.

The leaked video in question, which was published in the media in August 2024, caused shockwaves of condemnation in Israel and abroad. The security camera clip was recorded at the Sde Teiman military detention center and the IDF has not disputed its authenticity. It shows Israeli soldiers carrying a blindfolded detainee behind a wall of personal shields apparently formed by other soldiers to obscure the view of security cameras.

Following the release of the video, five Israeli soldiers were arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing serious injury to a detainee in their custody.

According to a document detailing the charges, the soldiers kicked, dragged, stepped on and used Tasers on the detainee. The Palestinian was admitted to hospital with fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a rectal tear after the incident.

The investigation into the alleged attack is ongoing.

The arrests sparked angry demonstrations in support of the accused soldiers, particularly with a crowd gathering and breaking into the Sde Teiman facilities. Israeli media said three members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, were present at that protest. Protesters also broke into a second facility, where soldiers were being interrogated.

In his resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said there had been a “false delegitimization campaign” targeting his department, whose role is to uphold the law within the IDF.

“This destructive campaign reached its peak following the decision to investigate the Sde Teiman matter,” Tomer-Yerushalmi said.

He also said there were “severe allegations suggesting we favored terrorists over our own troops” during the investigation into the detention center attack.

Fury among Israelis over the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, has fueled opposition in many quarters to investigations into the actions of the country’s security forces, and Tomer-Yerushalmi was publicly criticized by senior members of the Israeli government during the investigation she then led.

Shortly after his resignation on Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a statement welcoming his departure, adding: “Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is not fit to wear the army uniform.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the scandal was “perhaps the most severe propaganda attack the State of Israel has experienced since its creation.”

When asked about the arrest of the former top military lawyer, the Israeli national police declined to comment, noting that the investigation was still ongoing.

Palestinians released from Israeli prisons since the US-brokered peace plan came into effect in Gaza have reported significant abuses at the hands of their jailers. The United Nations said in September that at least 75 Palestinians had died in Israeli detention since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack sparked the war in Gaza.

Some far-right members of the Israeli government have vowed to make the country’s detention centers less hospitable, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the country’s prisons, who promised there would be “summer camps” under his watch.

News themezone’ Michal Ben-Gal and Ofir Rosenblum contributed to this report.