A former senior law officer in the Israeli army has been arrested after admitting to allowing the leak of a video of a Palestinian detainee being assaulted in a detention center last year.
Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi served as the chief military lawyer of the Israel Defense Forces until Friday, October 31, and admitted in a resignation letter that he allowed the video clip to be leaked to Israeli media.
He called his action “an attempt to counter false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities,” following a backlash by members of Israel’s far-right against an investigation into the alleged abuse of a Palestinian prisoner.
Israeli media reported that Tomer-Yerushalmi will be questioned by investigators and could face charges including obstruction of justice. Until recently, the department he headed was conducting an investigation into the same video leak.
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The leaked video, released to the media in August 2024, caused waves of condemnation in Israel and abroad. The security camera clip was recorded at the Sde Teiman military detention center, and the IDF has not questioned its authenticity. Israeli soldiers are shown carrying a blindfolded detainee behind a wall of what appears to be personal shields from other soldiers to block the view of security cameras.
After the video was released, five Israeli soldiers were arrested and charged with aggravated battery for seriously injuring a detainee.
According to a document detailing the charges, the soldiers kicked, dragged, stomped and tasered the detainee. The Palestinian man was admitted to a hospital with broken ribs, a punctured lung and a ruptured rectum after the incident.
The investigation into the alleged attack is ongoing.
The arrest caused angry demonstrations in favor of the accused soldiers, especially a gather the crowd and enter the Sde Teiman facilities. According to the Israeli media, three members of the Israeli Knesset parliament were present at the protest. A second facility was also attacked by the demonstrators when the soldiers were being interrogated.
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In his resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said there was a “false delegitimization campaign” aimed at his department, whose role is to enforce the law within the IDF.
“This destructive campaign reached its peak after the decision to investigate the Sde Teiman affair,” Tomer-Yerushalmi said.
He also said there had been “serious allegations suggesting that we favor terrorists against our troops” in the investigation into the detention center attack.
Israeli anger over the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas 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 at the inquiry she led at the time.
Shortly after his resignation on Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz released a statement welcoming his departure, adding: “Anyone who spreads blood libels against FDI troops is not fit to wear an army uniform.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the scandal was “perhaps the worst propaganda attack the State of Israel has experienced since its founding.”
When approached about the former military lawyer’s arrest, Israel’s National Police declined to comment, noting that the investigation was still ongoing.
Since the US-led peace plan in Gaza came into effect, Palestinians released from Israeli prisons have complained of severe abuse at the hands of their jailers. United Nations Organization he said in September At least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since the Gaza war was sparked by the October 7 attack by Hamas.
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 swore there would not be “summer camps” under his care.
CBS News’ Michal Ben-Gal and Ofir Rosenblum contributed to this report.