A resignation rooted in shame: How Israel’s military top lawyer quit after the leaked rape-video of...

In a development that lays bare the dysfunction and moral peril of the Israeli detention system in Gaza’s fallout, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi — the military advocate general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — resigned on 31 October 2025 after admitting that she authorised the leak of video footage showing soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee at the detention facility at Sde Teiman detention camp. Her decision to step down illuminates more than an internal scandal — it underscores how a system of detention and deprivation, largely hidden from view, has become not only abusive but politically toxic for Israel.

The video case: what happened and why it matters

The incident at Sde Teiman emerged last year, in August 2024, when a CCTV-leak aired on Israel’s Channel 12 showing what the media described as a gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli reservist soldiers. According to Al Jazeera’s explainer, the footage shows soldiers pulling a blindfolded prisoner aside, then surrounding him with riot shields while obscuring their actions. Medical evidence reported by Israeli media (such as Haaretz) shows the victim suffered a ruptured bowel, severe anal and lung injuries, broken ribs. Though the formal indictment did not charge the soldiers with rape — only “severe abuse” — many rights observers said the downgrade signals impunity.

Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted she authorised the leak “in an attempt to counter false propaganda against military law-enforcement authorities.” But her admission has been seized by Israeli hard-right politicians as betrayal: for them, the leak served the enemy, and her resignation is being framed as meritless.

The victim and the human cost

Although the detainee remains anonymous in public accounts, the gravity of his abuse sets the tone. A Palestinian from Gaza held at Sde Teiman, stripped of identity before the world, suffered sexualised violence, torture, injuries requiring hospitalisation, and the ignominy of being used as a spectacle. In these dark moments we see what many human-rights organisations warn: that Palestinian detainees, far from being shielded by legal protections, are rendered vulnerable to the worst abuses of power.

The fact that a top legal official felt compelled to leak the video suggests two parallel regimes: one of detention and abuse, the other of cover-up and damage-control. The victim, without voice and name in the public domain, remains a symbol of the thousands who languish in custody facing such risks.

Patterns of abuse: beyond one video

This is not an isolated incident. Investigations and reporting suggest that at Sde Teiman — and in the broader Israeli detention apparatus for Palestinians — abuse, humiliations, torture and sexual violence have become alarmingly common. A detailed Al Jazeera report noted that bodies of more than a hundred Palestinians returned by Israel bear clear signs of abuse: blindfolds, bound hands, execution-style gunshots to the head. One UN rights-office press release states at least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since 7 October 2023, many following torture or denial of medical treatment. Testimonies published by Le Monde described one detainee at Sde Teiman who saw carrots forced into fellow prisoners’ anuses and other “rape with iron batons” acts. The tags on body-bags returned to Gaza often begin with “ST” (for Sde Teiman), which local medical staff say indicates those remains passed through that facility. The Guardian says at least 135 mutilated Palestinian bodies returned to Gaza had come from Sde Teiman; some showed gunshots in the head, rope around the neck, hands still tied behind backs.

With respect to children: though detailed breakdowns of how many minors suffered abuse in Israeli detention remain unclear in open sources, the general context of thousands of Palestinians held under Israeli control — including under administrative detention, without trial — means children are inherently exposed. For example, one broad data set reports that more than 10,800 Palestinians (including 450 children) were in Israeli prisons in the broader Gaza/West Bank context as of late 2025.

Why this is a public-relations and legitimacy disaster for

For Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, the affair is more than an embarrassment — it is arguably one of the worst self-inflicted PR disasters in recent years. When a top military legal officer admits that a video of soldiers abusing a detainee had to be leaked to correct “false propaganda”, the message is clear: abuse is real, cover-up is institutional, the rule of law is broken. In the international arena, Israel presents itself as a democracy committed to human rights and the rule of law. Yet this affair undermines that claim violently. Foreign governments, international organisations and media see a pattern: sexual violence in custody, deaths in detention, bodies returned with signs of torture. The U.S. State Department explicitly said that “there ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse or rape of any detainee.” Right-wing Israeli leaders who stormed the base where the accused soldiers were held, and who defend the notion of “our soldiers acting for our security” undercut any meaningful accountability. Thus Netanyahu’s calculation: the incident taints Israel’s global standing, gives fuel to narratives of Israeli impunity, strengthens calls for war-crimes investigations, undermines alliances and creates leverage for Israel’s enemies and critics.

Legal ramifications — the leak and the abuse

The leak: Tomer-Yerushalmi’s admission that she authorised the leak means she faces a criminal investigation by the Military Police into disclosure of classified material. The fact that the leak was ostensibly to expose wrongdoing does not in the Israeli military legal framework exempt her from liability. The abuse : The soldiers involved were initially arrested and indicted for “severe abuse” but not rape — a key legal point since many observers argue the facts support sexual assault charges. Under Israeli military law and international law (including the Geneva Conventions, Rome Statute of the ICC) acts such as torture, sexual violence against detainees, summary execution, are war crimes or crimes against humanity when part of a policy or widespread practice. The evidence of signs of torture on dozens of bodies, and the systemic nature of the documented abuse, raise the possibility of such crimes. Should independent investigation proceed, the legal risks for Israel are enormous: individual criminal liability for perpetrators, command-responsibility liability for senior officers, state responsibility under international human-rights law, and reputational damage that could trigger sanctions or international adjudication.

Why the prison-system must be **

🫶The bigger problem is the detention system itself: facilities like Sde Teiman, operating under conditions of near-total impunity, for Palestinians — many held without charge or trial; many held incommunicado; many with no access to independent oversight. Reports say detainees were held blindfolded, shackled for long hours, forced into stress positions, subjected to sexualised violence and even execution-style killing. The system is deeply asymmetrical: Palestinian detainees are held under military rule, Israeli soldiers essentially police themselves, and far-right political pressure obstructs investigations. The incident of the Top Legal Officer leaking a video because conventional channels were not trusted speaks volumes. For victims, every day in custody becomes a risk of becoming the next “video scandal” or the next body returned with a number but no name.