In the statement, he emphasised the “importance of ... conducting the investigation professionally in order to uncover the full truth regarding the case that led to a blood libel against IDF soldiers”.
According to Israeli media, a Tel Aviv court ordered that Tomer-Yerushalmi be remanded in custody.
Public broadcaster Kan reported she was accused of “fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and disclosure of information by a public servant”.
She is implicated with another member of the military prosecution.
‘Severe violence’
Last week, the army announced that Tomer-Yerushalmi had resigned from her post pending an investigation into leaked footage taken at the Sde Teiman military base last year.
The case began in August 2024 when Israel’s Channel 12 broadcast footage from Sde Teiman, which has been used to hold Palestinians from Gaza during the war triggered by Hamas’ brutal October 7, 2013, cross-border assault.
Surveillance camera footage appeared to show soldiers interfering with a detainee, but a direct view of the alleged assault was obscured by a wall of troops holding up riot shields.
The video was picked up by several media outlets and the case triggered international outrage and protests within Israel.
The Israeli military said in February that it had filed charges against five reservist soldiers connected with mistreatment at Sde Teiman.
The statement said they were charged with “acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum”.
It added “the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear”.
The statement said that the abuse took place on July 5, 2024, during a search of the detainee, who was taken to an area adjacent to the prison, blindfolded and handcuffed.
It mentions numerous pieces of evidence gathered during the investigation, including footage from surveillance cameras and medical documents.
Deported to Gaza
The military prosecutor’s office has informed the lawyers representing some of the soldiers in the case that the detainee who was supposed to testify against them had been deported to Gaza in October.
“The military prosecutor announced to the lawyers of the soldiers from Unit Force 100, who are charged in the Sde Teiman case, that the terrorist whom the soldiers are accused of assaulting has been deported to Gaza,” said a statement from the right-wing Honenu advocacy group representing some of the soldiers.
The leaked video piled pressure on Israel’s political and military leaders during the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023.
“The exposure of the brutal abuse ... at the Sde Teiman detention site dealt a heavy blow not only to Israel’s image but also to its legitimacy and that of the Israel Defence Forces,” wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in an editorial.
As Tomer-Yerushalmi’s arrest was announced, Channel 12 reported that police suspected she had had no intention of taking her own life and that she had instead staged the disappearance in order to get rid of her phone, which may have contained compromising information.
In October 2024, a UN commission found that thousands of detainees were subjected to “widespread and systematic abuse” in Israeli military camps and detention facilities that amounted to a “war crime and crime against humanity of torture”.
Israel called the accusations “outrageous”, adding it was “fully committed to international legal standards regarding the treatment of detainees”.
- Agence France-Presse
