Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israeli military’s top lawyer, has resigned after saying she was responsible for the leaking of a video that purportedly shows soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.
The resignation, reported as a major development in an already volatile case, came after police opened a criminal investigation earlier in the week into how the surveillance footage from the Sde Teiman detention facility was leaked. Tomer-Yerushalmi had already been on leave while the inquiry was under way. The BBC said five reserve soldiers have been charged over the incident.
In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said she took full responsibility for any material that had been released to the media from her unit. She said she had approved the release in an attempt to counter what she described as false propaganda against the military’s law-enforcement authorities. That statement places her departure at the center of a wider fight over the handling of alleged abuse and the political response to the footage.
The video, first broadcast by Israeli Channel 12 news in August 2024, shows soldiers at Sde Teiman taking a detainee aside, then surrounding him with riot shields while he was stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object, according to the BBC report. The detainee was treated for severe injuries.
The case has become politically charged. Defence Minister Israel Katz had already said before the resignation that Tomer-Yerushalmi would not be allowed to return to her post. After her resignation was accepted by the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Katz welcomed the decision and said anyone who spreads what he called blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army’s uniform.
The episode also reflects the deeper dispute around treatment of Palestinian detainees since the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel. Right-wing politicians in Israel have denied the allegations and condemned the leak as an effort to defame the military, while the BBC noted that a UN commission of inquiry last year alleged widespread and systematic abuse of detainees from Gaza.
Israel’s government has rejected those accusations and said it remains committed to international legal standards. But Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation adds a new layer to a case that already involves criminal charges, competing claims about propaganda and evidence, and renewed questions about oversight inside the military justice chain.
The immediate question now is how far the investigation will go, and whether the leaked footage will be treated as proof of wrongdoing, proof of a breach of procedure, or both.
For Israeli military officials, the resignation is especially damaging because it puts the office responsible for legal oversight at the center of the controversy. Tomer-Yerushalmi’s decision to say she approved the leak may sharpen the dispute over whether releasing the footage was a necessary act of accountability or a breach that compounded the underlying scandal. The case now sits at the intersection of military discipline, public trust and the politics of wartime allegations.
The episode is likely to remain a test of credibility for Israel’s military institutions because it involves both alleged abuse and the question of who had the authority to release the footage. That combination makes the resignation bigger than a personnel change.
