The former legal chief of the Israeli Army Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who claimed to be responsible for the leak of a video in which reservists were imprisoned last summer in Sde Teiman, was detained by the police during the early hours of this Monday.
“As part of the investigation carried out by a special team of the Israel Police for alleged leaks and other serious crimes, it has been decided to arrest two key figures involved in the case,” the police shared in a brief statement published on their official channels.
According to local media, the second detainee is the former chief prosecutor of the Army, Colonel Matan Solomosh, who is expected to appear today, Monday, along with Tomer-Yerushalmi, before the Tel Aviv Court of First Instance for an extension of his preventive detention.
In the video leaked to Channel 12 news, for which five reservist soldiers were charged in August 2024, soldiers in Sde Teiman are seen pulling a detainee aside and surrounding him with riot shields – to prevent visibility – while he is sodomized with a sharp object.
The Palestinian prisoner who was the victim of the abuse “arrived at the hospital with a life-threatening condition and with injuries to his upper body and a serious injury to his rectum,” the Israeli NGO then revealed.
Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was forced to resign this week and declared in another letter on Friday that she was responsible for the leak of the video in question, which is being investigated. Yesterday morning, his family reported him missing and his car was located next to a beach in Tel Aviv, with what is believed to be a farewell suicide note. After hours of anguish, she contacted her husband and was located “safe and sound.” It was then that she was taken to the police station and formally detained.
According to several Israeli media, his decision to leak the video was due to his desire to counteract interference – led by ultra-nationalist ministers, journalists and Israeli political figures – to prevent the Military Prosecutor’s Office from investigating the Sde Teiman prison.
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Kazt announced that the lawyer had been suspended and would not return to her position “given the seriousness of the allegations against her.” “I will ensure that justice is done to all those who participated in the blood libel against the soldiers of the Defense Forces in the Sde Teiman case,” he warned when making the announcement. A day before, the Army announced a criminal investigation into the leak of the video, which they suspected had been passed on to Channel 12 News by people close to the Chief of Police and senior officials of the Military Attorney General’s Office.
“Propaganda attack”
The Israeli Prime Minister, this Sunday, described the leak of the video as the “most severe propaganda attack” against Israel since its creation. “The incident caused enormous damage to the image of the State of Israel, the Army and our soldiers. This is perhaps the most severe propaganda attack that the State of Israel has suffered since its founding. I do not remember one so specific. This demands an independent and impartial investigation, and I hope it will be so,” the Israeli president said in a statement.
The Ministry of Justice is trying to remove Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara (whom Netanyahu wants to remove for her numerous rulings against his policies), from being responsible for the investigation, but she has insisted these days, in a letter, that the ministry “lacks the authority” to veto it. The fight is, therefore, about human rights and politics.
