Israel arrests former top army lawyer over abuse video

JERUSALEM - Israeli police arrested the military's former top lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the national security minister said Monday, after she admitted to leaking a video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Former advocate general Tomer-Yerushalmi disappeared for several hours on Sunday after announcing her resignation, triggering media speculation of a possible suicide attempt, but she was later detained.

According to a copy of her resignation letter published by Israeli media on Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi has acknowledged that her office had released the video to the media last year during an international uproar over prisoner mistreatment.

Five reservists have been formally charged since the video was leaked in 2024. Among the charges they faced was using a "sharp object" to stab a detainee near the rectum.

In a social media post, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said: "It was agreed that in light of last night's events, the prison service would act with extra vigilance to ensure the detainee's safety in the detention centre."

In the statement, he emphasised the "importance of... conducting the investigation professionally in order to uncover the full truth regarding the case that led to a blood libel against IDF soldiers".

According to Israeli media, a Tel Aviv court ordered that Tomer-Yerushalmi be remanded in custody until noon on Wednesday.

Public broadcaster Kan reported she was accused of "fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and disclosure of information by a public servant".

She is implicated along with another member of the military prosecution.

'SEVERE VIOLENCE'

On Friday, the army announced that Tomer-Yerushalmi had resigned from her post pending an investigation into leaked footage taken at the Sde Teiman military base last year.

The case began in August 2024 when Israel's Channel 12 broadcast footage from Sde Teiman, which has been used to hold Palestinians from Gaza during the war triggered by Hamas's brutal 7 October 2023 cross-border assault.

Surveillance camera footage appeared to showsoldiers interfering with a detainee, but a direct view of the alleged assault was obscured by a wall of troops holding up riot shields.

The video was picked up by several media outlets and the case triggered international outrage and protests within Israel.

The Israeli military said in February that it had filed charges against five reservist soldiers connected with mistreatment at Sde Teiman.

The statement said they were charged with "acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee's bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee's rectum".

It added "the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear".

The statement said that the abuse took place on 5 July 2024 during a search of the detainee, who was taken to an area adjacent to the prison, blindfolded and handcuffed.

It mentions numerous pieces of evidence gathered during the investigation, includingfootage from surveillance cameras and medical documents.

DEPORTED TO GAZA

The military prosecutor's office on Monday informed the lawyers representing some of the soldiers in the case that the detainee who was supposed to testify against them had been deported to Gaza in October.

"The military prosecutor announced today (Monday) to the lawyers of the soldiers from Unit Force 100, who are charged in the Sde Teiman case, that the terrorist whom the soldiers are accused of assaulting has been deported to Gaza," said a statement from the right-wing Honenu advocacy group representing some of the soldiers.

The leaked video piled pressure on Israel's political and military leaders during the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023.

"The exposure of the brutal abuse... at the Sde Teiman detention site dealt a heavy blow not only to Israel's image but also to its legitimacy and that of the Israel Defense Forces," wrote the Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper in an editorial on Sunday.

As Tomer-Yerushalmi's arrest was announced on Monday, Channel 12 reported that police suspected she had had no intention of taking her own life and that she had instead staged the disappearance in order to get rid of her phone, which may have contained compromising information.

In October 2024, a UN commission found that thousands of detainees were subjected to "widespread and systematic abuse" in Israeli military camps and detention facilities that amounted to a "war crime and crime against humanity of torture".

Israel called the accusations "outrageous", adding it was "fully committed to international legal standards regarding the treatment of detainees".