JERUSALEM, Nov. 3 — Israel’s former chief military prosecutor was arrested after admitting to leaking video footage showing soldiers at a detention facility in southern Israel abusing a Palestinian detainee, officials said on Monday.
Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday after taking responsibility for leaking the video. The arrest followed a wide-scale search along Tel Aviv’s coastline on Sunday night, launched after Tomer-Yerushalmi’s family reported concerns for her safety and police found her car abandoned near the beach.
Police said she was found soon afterward “alive and well.” On Monday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered that she remain in custody at least until Wednesday.
The police said she is suspected of fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, and obstruction of justice. Former military prosecutor Matan Solomesh was also arrested and remanded until Wednesday.
State-owned Kan TV reported that several officers from the military prosecution have been questioned by police. Tomer-Yerushalmi’s mobile phone has not been located, and investigators are examining whether she may have thrown it into the sea to destroy evidence.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said she was being held under increased supervision. The leaked video, broadcast by Channel 12 television, showed the assault of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in August 2024.
At the time, the military was investigating the incident and had detained several soldiers suspected of involvement, triggering anger among far-right activists who stormed the facility in protest.
Five soldiers were later indicted. According to the indictment, a copy of which was seen by Xinhua, the five beat, kicked and assaulted a Palestinian detainee from Gaza with a stun gun and sodomized him while he was blindfolded and shackled hand and foot.
They caused him severe injuries. In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said she leaked the video to counter a storm of public outrage in Israel directed at the military prosecution after the arrest of the suspected soldiers.
The military has a “duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of violence against a detainee,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, this basic understanding — that there are actions which must never be taken, even against the vilest of detainees — no longer convinces everyone,” she added. (Xinhua)
