Israel’s top military lawyer, Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, resigned on Friday after admitting she had approved the leak of a video showing IDF soldiers allegedly abusing a Palestinian detainee.
The footage was reportedly taken at the Sde Teiman detention facility during the Gaza war. Her resignation comes amid a criminal investigation into the leak.
Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted her resignation to IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir on Friday, telling him she was personally responsible for leaking the video to the media.
“I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities," Tomer-Yerushalmi wrote in her resignation letter, as cited by the Times of Israel.
The investigation resulted in criminal charges against five soldiers and sparked widespread outrage. It drew criticism from right-wing politicians and led protesters to storm two military bases after investigators summoned troops for questioning.
A week after the break-ins, security footage leaked to Israeli media appeared to show soldiers leading a detainee aside, surrounding him with riot shields, and using a dog to block the view of their actions, as reported by Reuters.
The Sde Teiman detention camp, where the footage was taken, holds Hamas militants involved in the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, as well as Palestinians captured during the following months of fighting in Gaza.
Rights groups have documented serious abuses of Palestinians held in Israeli custody during the war. The Israeli military says it is investigating dozens of such cases but maintains that the abuse is not systematic, as cited by Reuters.
In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi described the Sde Teiman detainees as “terrorists of the worst kind,” but mentioned that this “does not detract from the obligation to investigate suspected abuse.”
"To my regret, this basic understanding - that there are acts to which even the most vile of detainees must not be subjected - is no longer convincing to all," she said in her letter.
Some politicians quickly reacted to Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that anyone who spreads “blood libels against Israeli soldiers” is unfit to wear the IDF uniform.
During the Israel-Hamas war, the Sde Teiman detention facility held over 1,000 detainees from Gaza suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Many were believed to have participated in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken, while others were detained during the IDF’s later operations in Gaza, as cited by the Times of Israel
More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, including 211 deaths reported during the ceasefire period.
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