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Senior IDF Official Arrested After Leaking Footage Exposing Israeli Torture Of Palestinian POWs

by | Nov 4, 2025

Although the Netanyahu regime launched its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip with the aim of destroying Hamas, the conflict has proven to have done more to destroy Israel’s reputation on the world stage than it has to defeat terrorism. Scenes showing the hell on Earth that Gaza has become throughout the course of the years-long war have exposed how Israel’s claims that it is defending its right to exist are little more than a facade it hides behind to justify committing a genocide against the Palestinian people. With a tentative “peace” (by Israeli standards) now in place, the pain of the war in Gaza has given way to the woe of its aftermath. With the fog of war dissipated, the full scope of the atrocities committed by the IDF has come into a sharpened focus.

Calls for the IDF and top Israeli officials to be brought to justice for their rampant human rights abuses have not come from the international community alone. They have also come from within the Israeli government itself. Yet, those within Israel’s body politic who call for justice are met with the same vehement disdain as the nations that have condemned the country for committing war crimes against the people of Gaza. The latest casualty of this genocidal mass formation psychosis highlights how no person, even one within the highest ranks of the Israeli government or military, is safe from the bloodlust of the architects of the war in Gaza.

After coming into the crosshairs of ministers within the Netanyahu government for not sanctioning their brazen disregard for the human rights of the Palestinian people, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi has resigned from her position as the chief legal officer of the Israeli military. In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted that she approved the release of a video revealing institutionalized acts of torture committed by the IDF against Palestinian prisoners of war that took place in the Sde Teiman detention camp in July 2024. While the IDF has faced a backlash over the acts of torture that have been committed at Sde Teiman, that outrage has come to pale in comparison to the backlash faced by the Israeli officials like Tomer-Yerushalmi and those operating under her directives tasked with bringing its perpetrators to justice.

Sde Teiman has long held the reputation of being the Israeli equivalent of Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison notoriously known as the site of sadism under the tyranny of dictator Saddam Hussein, and ironically, the locus of torture and abuse of detainees held by the American forces “liberating” the country from his despotism. The transgressions taking place in the Israeli detention camp in the heart of the Negev Desert were thrust into international spotlight, bringing ignominy to the IDF in July 2024 when several reservists were arrested for the brutal rape of a Palestinian prisoner.

Following the arrests, Sde Teian was taken under siege by a mob of Israelis who broke into the prison to attack military investigators questioning IDF soldiers about the torture allegations. The site where the soldiers who were arrested were being detained also became descended upon by a mob aligned with the furthest right-most factions in Israel’s political landscape, led by Israeli National Defense Minister and self-avowed Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben-Gvir. The mob, serving to do the bidding of Ben-Gvir, called for the immediate release of the detained IDF reservists, demonstrating the turmoil within the inner machinations of Israel’s political system as members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition pitted themselves against the country’s military command.

In the face of claims from members of Ben-Gvir’s political axis that the allegations of abuse against IDF reservists at Sde Teiman were fabricated and that the decision to investigate them undermined Israel’s national security by giving them the air of legitimacy, the surveillance video of the gang rape of the Palestinian prisoner was leaked to Israeli news network Channel 12 to counter that propaganda from the Netanyahu government. The graphic footage captured by the surveillance camera was aired to the public, corroborating the testimony of doctors who treated the prisoner for what they described as ruptured bowels, severe anal injuries, lung damage, and broken ribs after repeatedly being sodomized by a sharp object by IDF reservists.

Those injuries were also cited by the Israeli military in February 2025 in the indictments it filed against 5 of the reservists that were arrested for the torture. “The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detaineeā€™s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” the military said in a statement. Military officials also cited extensive evidence from medical documentation and surveillance footage from Sde Teiman like that which was leaked to Channel 12 as the basis for the indictments.

Despite the incontrovertible evidence included in the indictments, the prosecution of the IDF reservists arrested for the gang rape only emboldened political opponents against the arrests. Members of Israel’s military and justice system tasked with the prosecution soon became the targets because of their efforts. Tomer-Yerushalmi’s decision to leak the video to the Israeli media was made in response to that continued political onslaught challenging her authority over implementing military law within the IDF and the hostilities those involved in the prosecution of the reservist became subjected to.

Shortly after Channel 12 aired the footage, Tomer-Yerushalmi was placed on forced leave by the Israeli Defense Ministry after a criminal probe was launched to investigate the origins of the leak. In the months that followed her being placed on leave, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Tomer-Yerushalmi would not be allowed to return to her post, forcing her resignation. In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi stated that “To my regret, this basic understandingā€”that there are acts to which even the most vile of detainees must not be subjectedā€”is no longer convincing to all,” a tacit admission of the institutionalized abuse sanctioned by Israeli officials within the IDF and Netanyahu government.

In response to Tomer-Yerushalmi admitting she was behind the release of the video from Sde Teiman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the leak as the worst public relations disaster that Israeli has ever faced (other than that whole genocide thing, I guess). ā€œIt is perhaps the most serious public relations attack Israel has experienced since its foundingā€”I cannot recall one so concentrated and intense,ā€ Netanyahu said. ā€œThis requires an independent and impartial inquiry, and I expect that such an investigation will indeed take place.ā€

Yet, before an investigation into the leak has even began, its impartiality has already been compromised. Following Tomer-Yerushalmi’s admission as being the source of the leak, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced his intent to hire a special investigator for the matter. Levin instructed Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that she was barred from the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, accusing her of committing obstruction of justice to prevent previously determining the source of the leak, even going as far as to indicate she knew that Tomer-Yerushalmi had leaked the video all along. Baharav-Miara rejected Levin’s assertion that she was barred from overseeing the investigation, citing that the justice minister lacks the authority to appoint another official to conduct an inquiry into the matter, setting up a contentious legal battle over who will rightfully be placed in charge of the investigation.

Amidst that turmoil, Israeli officials have continued to dig their heels in the sand, holding firm to their claims that the allegations of sexual abuse and other sadistic torture plaguing Sde Teiman were unfounded. Katz responded to Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation, stating she was unworthy of donning the IDF uniform for what he deemed fabricating “blood libels against Israeli soldiers.” Katz’s message pushing the false narrative that the allegations of torture Tomer-Yerushalmi exposed at Sde Teiman were fabricated was echoed by Finance Minister, illegal settler, and Greater Israel advocate, Bezalel Smotrich, who accused her of being part of a massive network of corruption aimed at pushing ā€œanti-Semitic blood libelā€ against the country’s military for investigating the gang rape.

While Ben-Gvir also welcomed Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation, that alone was not enough for him, as he urged for the continued persecution of all those involved in revealing the horrific torture taking place at Sde Teiman. ā€œAll those involved in the affair must be held accountable,” he said, parroting his continued rhetoric that revealing the abuse served to further the cause of Hamas, which Tomer-Yerushalmi alluded to in her resignation letter as the propaganda being spread against her office, motivating her to leak the surveillance footage from the prison.

The gravity of the political crusade against Tomer-Yerushalmi was put into perspective following the announcement of her resignation. After it was revealed that IDF reservists had organized a protest outside of her home in response to the revelation that she leaked footage from Sde Teiman to the media, Tomer-Yerushalmi’s family filed a missing person’s report with Israeli police after being unable to reach her for several hours. The missing person’s report led to Israeli authorities launching a search and rescue mission that involved Israeli police, rescue forces, and the military. The search party uncovered Tomer-Yerushalmi’s abandoned car by Hatzuk Beach in northern Tel Aviv, as Israeli media reported she had left a letter at her home, which some outlets speculated was a suicide note.

Two hours into the search, Tomer-Yerushalmi contacted her husband and was located alive along the beach. According to Israeli police, while Tomer-Yerushalmi was found alive, her personal phone, which they had been tracking to locate her, was unable to be recovered by authorities, with a police source telling Israel’s Channel 12 that ā€œat this moment it is not known to us where her personal phone is. We understand that it has ā€˜disappeared.’ā€ Following the conclusion of the frantic search for Tomer-Yerushalmi, IDF reservists announced the cancellation of their planned protest outside of her home.

After being found alive, Tomer-Yerushalmi was arrested and taken into custody for a health examination and subsequent questioning by Israeli police as part of a criminal investigation into the surveillance footage leaked to Channel 12. The Israeli militaryā€™s former chief prosecutor, Colonel Matan Solomosh was also arrested as part of the investigation. The pair face charges relating to leaking classified materials and obstructing justice. Tomer-Yerushalmi and Solomosh are set to be arraigned in Tel Aviv Magistrates Court on Monday morning.

The chaos that has ensued following Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation foreshadows the political and legal maelstrom that lies ahead for her. Speculation over her suicide in the wake of reports that she had gone missing did not just convey how dire the crucible she finds herself in is; it also shined a light on how dangerous the enemies she had made are, giving cause to fear for her imminent demise. Itamar Ben-Gvir, chief among her enemies, is no stranger to making threats against the lives of his political enemies. In 1995, Ben-Gvir famously threatened the life Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by interrupting a news broadcast to brandish a hood ornament that he ripped off of the prime minister’s Cadillac, stating, “We got to his car, and we’ll get to him too” in front of the camera. Rabin was assassinated just weeks later.

To this day, Ben-Gvir still revels in the assassination of Rabin over the role he played in negotiating the Oslo Accords with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that were signed in 1993. In February 2025, Ben-Gvir praised far-right Jewish activist Avigdor Eskin for organizing a Kabbalistic ceremony known as a Pulsa deNura, in which angels are invoked through prayer and called upon to kill the victim of the practitioners of the ritual. This Kabbalistic death prayer organized by Eskin was held to evoke the death of Rabin in the months leading up to his assassination. Ben-Gvir remarked about how “he [Eskin] brought pride to Israel” by organizing the Pulsa deNura, while in attendance at the bar mitzvah of the far-right activist’s son.

Ben-Gvir’s celebration of Eskin’s contributions to sowing the seeds of the political climate leading to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin illustrates the lengths he is willing to go to in order to advance his political agenda, even going as far as to promote the use of black magick. With ostensibly nothing off limits, the concerns about the lengths that his political axis will go to commit political subterfuge to subdue ramifications of the revelation of the torture committed by the IDF at Sde Teiman are impossible to chart. Knowing the wanton abandonment of morality that Israeli leadership operates under, their denial of a truth revealed for the whole world to see comes as no surprise.

Despite the protestations of the inner circle of Netanyahu’s government that allegations of abuse at Sde Teiman are unfounded, ample evidence of the torture conducted by the IDF at the prison has surfaced far beyond the video evidence leaked under the directive of Tomer-Yerushalmi. In October 2024, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel issued a report examining the treatment of Palestinian detainees following October 7th, 2023. In the report, the commission found that thousands of detainees from Gaza, including children, were “subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence,” like that which took place at Sde Teiman prison. Following the release of the report, a defiant Israeli government disavowed its findings, claiming that the country was “fully committed to international legal standards” and carried out thorough investigations into every allegation, a promise that was proven to be hollow when weighed against the handling of revelations of system abuse at Sde Teiman.

In the wake of Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi’s resignation from the IDF, the investigation into her leaking evidence of the war crimes committed at Sde Teiman prison by the Israeli military is poised to take precedence over any inquiry into those crimes themselves. That indignance in the face of calls for justice for Palestinian prisoners of war subjected to torture proves that the abuse committed at Sde Teiman is not an aberration but evidence of how the abhorrent conduct of the IDF has been institutionalized by political, social, and military leaders within Israeli society. The fact that those behind the leak of the surveillance footage from Sde Teiman prison, unequivocally erasing any doubts about the war crimes committed by the IDF, are being persecuted with more fervor than the criminals responsible for the vile rape and torture of prisoners is a microcosm of the inversion of morality that Zionism depends on to justify the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

Reprinted with author’s permission from ZeroHedge.

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