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Former Top Military Lawyer Arrested in Scandal Over Leaked Detention Facility Video
Former Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. (res.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned from the Israel Defense Forces over a leaked surveillance video scandal, was arrested on Sunday after going missing for several hours.
She was reported missing on Sunday evening but was located alive in Herzliya after an extensive search along the Tel Aviv coastline. Local media reported that she left notes at home and in her abandoned car, which was found less than a mile south of the beach where she was eventually located. One letter reportedly read, “Children, I love you, be strong,” and some Hebrew outlets characterized it as a suicide note.
Police and rescue teams deployed helicopters, flares, and ground forces after her family reported her missing, and her car was found near Hatzuk Beach. Authorities tracked her personal phone to the Herzliya area, but the device has not yet been recovered. She was taken for medical evaluation and later arrested in connection with the leak.
Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted to approving the release of the video showing five IDF reservists allegedly abusing a Hamas terrorist at the Sde Teiman detention facility, claiming she had done so in an attempt to “fend off false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.” The criminal probe into the incident and the subsequent arrest of nine troops sparked outrage among right-wing Israelis and lawmakers. The leak prompted criminal investigations and heightened political tensions, including the detention of the military’s former chief prosecutor, Col. Matan Solomosh, on suspicion of obstruction of justice related to the leak and subsequent reporting.
Tomer-Yerushalmi and Solomosh are expected to be brought before the Tel Aviv’s Magistrate’s Court on Monday, where police will request to extend their detention.
On Saturday night, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin ordered outgoing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to refrain from investigating the leak, alleging she might have obstructed the probe in recent months, including by making false statements to the High Court of Justice.
The episode has intensified public debate over accountability and political incitement. Right-wing politicians accused her of betraying soldiers, while opposition leaders warned that political rhetoric and labeling officials as traitors can endanger lives..Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blamed Tomer-Yerushalmi for “perhaps the most severe public relations attack the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”
Avi Abelow commented on the episode:
“The entire Sde Teiman fabricated video affair is unraveling into a toxic, multi-layered story of corruption and betrayal — involving the IDF legal department (not just the MAG!), the Attorney General of Israel, and possibly others!
“This isn’t just another scandal; it’s exposing the rot at the very heart of Israel’s legal system. What’s happening now could be the crack in the wall of the deep state apparatus that so many of us have been warning about for decades — the one people refused to believe even existed.
“The truth is finally breaking through. The days of blind trust in a corrupt system are coming to an end. This was a massive leak, one of the most damaging blood libels in Israel’s history, that caused tremendous diplomatic damage to Israel and to the IDF. It was an unprecedented conspiracy at the highest levels of the Military Advocate General’s office, deceiving the High Court, the Knesset, and even the IDF Chief of Staff.”
“This was a shocking conflict of interest and ongoing obstruction of justice, that still is continuing at this moment, by the Attorney General, who still refuses to suspend anyone involved and recuse herself from involvement in the investigation…and let’s be honest, there’s a very high likelihood that the Attorney General herself is personally involved in the video scandal as well.”
“All while political bias runs rampant, suspects are getting preferential treatment based purely on their political identity, and the mainstream media is still covering for all those senior legal officials involved.”
“This isn’t just another scandal. It’s a full-blown earthquake that demands nothing less than a complete dismantling and rebuilding of both the State Attorney’s Office and the Military Advocate General’s Corps. The people of Israel deserve truth, transparency, and justice, not a corrupt system protecting its own.”
“Please God, may we witness the total crumbling of the deep state, so the Jewish state of Israel can move forward in the right direction. It is this deep state apparatus that has caused Israel to drag on this war for two years! How many lives, especially soldiers’ lives, could have been saved otherwise?”
“We are finally overcoming this internal evil and betrayal. Am Yisrael Chai!!!”
Naftali Moses, a resident of Gush Etzion, commented on the exceptional treatment of the episode by Israeli authorities.
“The Israeli police force has a history of rather quickly detaining, arresting and requesting continued imprisonment of suspects throughout their trials (which are notoriously belabored affairs…lasting oftentimes for years on end), all with the claim of ‘preventing the tampering with evidence’ by a suspect.”
“And yet–after the confession of guilt to a horrifically damaging breach of trust by the MAG with credible suspicion that the AG (whose level of authority is unheard of in any other democratic country) was involved, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi simply is allowed to fall off the map for quite some time. And lo and behold, when she is discovered, her cellphone, the modern vault of all of our comings and goings, that treasure trove of evidence, has somehow disappeared.”
“So surprising. Not.”
“And of course, even before this, the AG’s office began its attempt to take over the investigation of the MAG. This over the completely reasonable objections of the Minister of Justice (who should be the minister to which the AG is subservient in any normal democracy, expect that here the AG reports to no one) to appoint a special counsel due to their obvious conflict of interest in a case wherein the AG herself submitted a false affidavit concerning the MAG to the HCJ and there is the clear appearance of questionable behavior of the MAG in not prosecuting the AG’s own son, caught red handed stealing while serving in the IDF.”
“So surprising. Not.”
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