Netanyahu Admitted Video Of Israeli Soldiers Raping A Palestinian Prisoner Is One Of Israel’s Worst Failures
On Friday, Oct. 31, the Israeli military’s top woman lawyer and military chief advocate, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, admitted to leaking footage and resigned.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that the incident at the Sde Teiman detention center, where a video showing Israeli soldiers gang raping a Palestinian prisoner was leaked, was Israel’s worst media failure.
Sde Teiman is an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert, approximately 29 kilometers from the Gaza border and was recently repurposed as a detention facility for Palestinians after Israel began its genocide in Gaza on Oct. 7.
The leaked security footage, aired by Israel’s Channel 12 in August 2024, showed rows of bound and blindfolded detainees lying on the ground as a group of Israeli soldiers escorted one detainee to the corner of the facility, using their shields to block the cameras from capturing their actions.
The detainee, who had been kidnapped by Israeli soldiers from a refugee camp in Gaza in March 2024, was later transferred after the incident to a hospital with severe physical injuries, including anal trauma, fractured ribs and a ruptured bowel that required surgery.
Following the allegations, at least nine Israeli soldiers were arrested, including a commanding officer.
On Friday, Oct. 31, the Israeli military’s top woman lawyer and military chief advocate, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, admitted to leaking footage and resigned.
In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said that she had authorized the release of the footage "in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities," particularly in response to claims by some right-wing politicians that reports of detainee abuse were fabricated.
After resigning, Tomer-Yerushalmi went missing and was later found alive in Herzliya.
She was arrested along with former prosecutor Matan Solomesh as part of the ongoing investigation into the leak.
Netanyahu said at the opening remarks of his government meeting on Sunday, Nov. 2, that it was “the most severe media failures Israel has experienced since its establishment” in 1948, adding it has caused serious damage to Israel and Israeli soldiers’ image and called for an investigation to be made.
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