The Israeli military’s top legal official, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, has resigned from her position after admitting she was involved in leaking a video that showed the severe torture of a Palestinian prisoner.
According to Israeli media, the Military Advocate General had been on leave since last week after police began investigating the leak. She submitted her resignation today in a meeting with the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who immediately accepted it.
In her resignation, Yerushalmi confessed to her role. “I approved the release of materials to the media to counter a false campaign being spread against the military legal institutions,” she stated, adding that she “takes full responsibility for this decision.”
The video at the center of the scandal was broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 in August 2024. It showed soldiers severely beating a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel.
The report noted that the prisoner was later hospitalized with serious injuries as a result of the beating.
The Sde Teiman facility, run by the Israeli military, holds thousands of detainees from Gaza. It has long been the subject of accusations of severe human rights violations, with multiple reports documenting torture, lack of medical care, and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
