Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, once the Israeli army’s chief legal officer, has become the focus of a national scandal following her sudden resignation, brief disappearance, and eventual arrest.
The saga began last week when Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted that she had authorized the leak of a surveillance video at the heart of a politically explosive investigation into the abuse of a Palestinian detainee at Israel’s Sde Teiman military prison. The footage, which shows soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner, was meant to highlight the gravity of the allegations. Instead, it provoked fierce backlash from Israel’s right-wing leadership.
Under intense political pressure, Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned. Soon after, she vanished, leaving behind a note and her car near a Tel Aviv beach. Fears for her safety sparked a large-scale search using military drones. She was found alive on Sunday night — a discovery that only intensified public attacks against her.
Right-wing commentator Yinon Magal, a supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted on X: “We can resume the lynch,” adding a winking emoji.
When reports surfaced that one of her phones was missing, critics accused her of faking a suicide attempt to destroy evidence.
Tomer-Yerushalmi now faces charges of fraud, breach of trust, and obstruction of justice, and will remain in custody until at least Wednesday. Former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh has also been arrested in connection with the leak. The prime minister’s office has declined to comment.
The uproar over the leaked video has shifted public focus away from the underlying issue — the alleged abuse itself. The July 2024 incident at Sde Teiman involved Israeli soldiers who, according to court documents, assaulted and sodomized a Palestinian prisoner with a knife, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.
A hospital staffer familiar with the case described the detainee’s condition as “the most extreme” he had seen, citing blunt trauma, fractured ribs, and a perforated rectum. The man was later returned to the prison after surgery and released to Gaza in a recent hostage-prisoner exchange.
Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation letter said she leaked the video to counter claims that the military’s internal investigators were persecuting soldiers. She argued that ignoring evidence of violence against detainees endangered the rule of law within the army. “There are actions which must never be taken, even against the vilest detainees,” she wrote.
The case highlights Israel’s deep internal divisions. According to Yohanan Plesner of the Israel Democracy Institute, investigators must now untangle three legal threads: the alleged abuse, efforts by right-wing civilians and lawmakers to obstruct the probe, and Tomer-Yerushalmi’s possible role in undermining the investigation through the leak.
Plesner said the public vitriol surrounding the case recalls the climate before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack — and even the tensions that led to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination 30 years ago.
“The debate over our differences must not turn into personal destruction,” he warned. “The events of this weekend should be a wake-up call for Israeli society.”
