Former Israeli Navy Chief Lawyer Arrested as Video Leak Scandal Intensifies
The previous chief authorized officer of the Israeli navy has been arrested, escalating a rising political storm over a leaked video that allegedly exhibits the brutal abuse of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli troopers.
Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned final week as Navy Advocate Common of the Israel Protection Forces (IDF), had mentioned she accepted full duty for the leak. On Sunday, she was briefly reported lacking earlier than being discovered protected close to a seashore north of Tel Aviv — after which taken into police custody.
The controversy facilities on footage aired by an Israeli information channel in August 2024, which reportedly exhibits reserve troopers on the Sde Teiman navy base in southern Israel surrounding a detainee with riot shields earlier than he was crushed and stabbed with a pointy object. The person was later hospitalized with critical accidents.
5 reservists had been charged with aggravated abuse and inflicting grievous bodily hurt, although they’ve denied wrongdoing. 4 of them appeared at a Jerusalem press convention Sunday — faces coated in balaclavas — claiming they had been victims of a politically motivated trial.
A prison investigation was launched final week into how the video was leaked. Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi was suspended pending the inquiry and later resigned after Protection Minister Israel Katz barred her from returning to her publish.
In her resignation letter, she acknowledged authorizing the discharge of some supplies “to counter false propaganda” towards the IDF’s authorized system, including that it was the navy’s obligation to research credible studies of abuse.
Her actions drew sharp criticism from Israel’s management. Katz condemned her conduct, saying, “Anybody who spreads blood libels towards IDF troops is unfit to put on the military’s uniform.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as the scandal “one of the extreme public relations assaults Israel has confronted since its founding.”
Hours after her resignation, studies emerged that Tomer-Yerushalmi had gone lacking, prompting a big police search earlier than she was discovered alive and effectively in Herzliya. In a single day, police confirmed two arrests associated to the leak — reportedly Tomer-Yerushalmi and Col. Matan Solomosh, the previous chief navy prosecutor.
The Sde Teiman incident has develop into a flashpoint in Israel’s polarized political local weather. Proper-wing figures have labeled the leak an act of betrayal, whereas the left has hailed it as a uncommon act of accountability exposing alleged mistreatment of Palestinian detainees following the October 7, 2023 Hamas assaults.
A UN fee report final 12 months accused Israel of widespread and systematic abuse of detainees from Gaza, together with acts amounting to warfare crimes. Israel rejected these allegations, insisting it adheres to worldwide regulation and investigates all credible complaints.
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