Israeli military dismisses former top lawyer at centre of Palestinian abuse video from Sde Teiman

Israel’s military on Tuesday announced the dismissal of its former top lawyer, months after she resigned amid a scandal involving a leaked video appearing to show soldiers severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.

The case, which sparked international outrage as well as protests within Israel, focused on footage taken at the high-security Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel in 2024.

The scandal led to the resignation last year of military advocate general, MG Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who in her resignation letter acknowledged that her office had leaked the abuse video to the media.

“From the moment suspicions arose regarding the former Military Advocate General in the ‘Sde Teiman’ affair, the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, decided to immediately suspend her from IDF service,” the military said in a statement.

“In light of the prolonged criminal proceedings, and given the severity of the alleged actions and suspicions, the Chief of the General Staff has decided to dismiss the former Military Advocate General from service without further delay,” it added.

The statement said that Tomer-Yerushalmi would not be entitled to the benefits of service period completion.

Sde Teiman has been used to hold Gazans since the start of Israel’s relentless bombardment in the Palestinian territory following the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

In February 2025, the military announced that five reservists had been charged over the alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee in July 2024 at the detention centre near the Gaza Strip.

At the time, the army said the soldiers were accused of “acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s buttocks with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum”.

In March, the military said it had dropped charges against the five soldiers, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailing the decision.

Defence Minister Israel Katz hailed Tomer-Yerushalmi’s dismissal, citing “severe damage to the trust placed in her by IDF commanders and soldiers”.