Israel arrests ex-army lawyer over leaked video showing Palestinian’s abuse

After a former military prosecutor’s video that appeared to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee was leaked to Israeli police, she was detained.

Following a scandal that erupted after she leaked a video, resigned, and then vanished, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, according to the nation’s national security minister, was taken into custody overnight on Monday.

The video’s leak, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is considered to be the most “severe public relations attack” against Israel since its founding.

After revealing her resignation on Sunday, Tomer-Yerushalmi vanished for several hours, giving rise to rumors of a possible suicide.

Tomer-Yerushalmi acknowledged that her office had released the video to the media last year in a copy of her resignation letter that was released by Israeli media on Friday. Later, five reservists were accused of treating prisoners poorly.

According to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, it was agreed that the prison service would exercise extra caution in the detention center where the detainee had been in custody in light of the events that occurred last night.

What charges did she face, according to the statement.

A Tel Aviv court reportedly extended Tomer-Yerushalmi’s stay in custody until noon on Wednesday, according to Israeli media.

According to Kan, a public servant, she is suspected of “fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, obstruction of justice, and disclosure of information by a public servant.”

According to Israeli Army Radio, Colonel Matan Solomesh, the former commander of the military, was also detained overnight in connection with the case and scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

“Severe violence”

Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned from her position as soon as an investigation into leaked footage from the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel was released on Friday, according to the Israeli military.

Sde Teiman, a prisoner of war against Palestinians taken in Gaza, was used as a holding place for Palestinians, which was used by Israel’s Channel 12 in August 2024 as the starting point for the case.

Without explicitly revealing it, the surveillance camera footage showed that soldiers had engaged in illicit behavior behind soldiers while raising shields, which appeared to be evidence of this.

The video was picked up by a number of media outlets, which sparked protests and outcry in Israel.

Five reservist soldiers have been charged with mistreatment at Sde Teiman, according to the Israeli military’s statement from February.

They were accused of “acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbering the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object that had penetrated close to the detainee’s rectum.”

The detainee suffered severe physical harm, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and an internal rectal tear, according to the statement.

According to the indictment, the detainee was searched on July 5, 2024, for the abuse.