By: Abe Wertenheim

The legal and political storm surrounding former Israel Defense Forces Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. (res.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi intensified this week, as the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered that she remain in detention until at least Friday. The dramatic ruling follows days of public confusion, a nationwide manhunt, and explosive allegations linking her to one of the most consequential intelligence and ethics breaches in the IDF’s history.

According to a report that appeared on Wednesday at The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), Judge Shelly Kotin determined that there exists “reasonable suspicion” that Tomer-Yerushalmi committed the serious offenses attributed to her, including fraud, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, abuse of office, and the unauthorized transmission of classified information. “Upon reviewing the list of planned investigative actions, there are actions that are vulnerable to obstruction, which necessitate the continued detention of the suspect,” Kotin wrote in her decision, emphasizing that investigators must be allowed to pursue the case unimpeded.

As JNS has chronicled in detail, Tomer-Yerushalmi’s arrest has sent shockwaves through Israel’s defense establishment, not only because of her senior rank but because of her former role as the top legal authority overseeing the IDF’s code of conduct and military prosecutions. Her alleged involvement in the Sde Teiman affair—a scandal stemming from the alleged abuse of a Hamas detainee at a makeshift detention center in the Negev—has laid bare deep fractures within Israel’s military justice system.

Tomer-Yerushalmi, who admitted to authorizing the leak of classified video footage showing the alleged abuse, maintains that her actions were meant to “counter false propaganda” targeting the IDF’s internal law enforcement mechanisms. The video, leaked to Channel 12 last week, ignited fury across the political spectrum and prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call it “perhaps the most severe public relations attack the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”

As Netanyahu told his Cabinet, the footage “caused immense damage to the image of the State of Israel and the IDF, to our soldiers,” describing the episode as “an assault on the moral legitimacy of Israel’s defensive war.”

The unfolding crisis took an even darker turn on Sunday when Tomer-Yerushalmi vanished from public view, leaving behind an ambiguous note to her family that read, “Don’t look back.” Her abandoned car was discovered along the Tel Aviv coast, sparking fears that she had taken her own life. Police mounted a nationwide search that gripped the country for hours until she was located alive later that night.

However, as JNS reported, investigators now believe her disappearance may have been a calculated ruse to avoid arrest and destroy evidence. During Tuesday’s interrogation, detectives accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of staging the suicide attempt. “It’s all a bluff … You were just trying to avoid arrest,” one officer reportedly told her, describing her disappearance as a “perfectly staged performance.”

Tomer-Yerushalmi rejected the accusation, insisting that she had been driven to desperation by relentless public scrutiny and personal threats. “None of you really understand what I’ve been through lately—I really meant it,” she reportedly told investigators. “My life became hell. I could no longer stand the humiliation and threats to my family, so I decided to end my life and left a note for the children.”

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court was informed that during a search of her home, police seized an Apple Watch believed to contain encrypted communications relevant to the case. Tomer-Yerushalmi provided investigators with the passcode, while her mobile phone remains missing. She told police that her phone “may have fallen into the sea,” though she could not recall the details of her three-hour disappearance.

The Sde Teiman affair, first exposed in July 2024, began when nine IDF soldiers were arrested on suspicion of abusing a detained Hamas operative during interrogations. The IDF Military Police launched an internal investigation under Tomer-Yerushalmi’s direction as then-Military Advocate General.

According to the information provided in the JNS report, the leaked footage—which depicted parts of the incident—was released to Channel 12 amid a climate of intense public anger. Critics accused the Military Advocate General’s Office of “humiliating loyal soldiers” and prioritizing “the welfare of terrorists over national morale.”

Right-wing politicians and commentators branded the investigation a “witch hunt,” while human rights groups hailed it as proof of Israel’s internal accountability mechanisms. But the video’s leak transformed the controversy into a full-blown institutional crisis.

Netanyahu, addressing ministers shortly before Tomer-Yerushalmi’s disappearance, declared that the footage “inflicted strategic damage” on Israel’s international standing. “It provided ammunition to our enemies, strengthened the global campaign to delegitimize our soldiers, and undermined Israel’s credibility in the eyes of its allies,” the prime minister said.

As the JNS report noted, the scandal’s timing—amid the ongoing war against Hamas and global scrutiny over Israel’s operations in Gaza—amplified its impact.

Perhaps the most astonishing revelations came from new reports, cited by JNS, indicating that Tomer-Yerushalmi did not act alone. A WhatsApp group allegedly comprising seven senior officers in the Military Advocate General’s Office—including Chief Military Prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh, who has also been detained—served as the nerve center for the decision to release the footage.

According to transcripts obtained by investigators, the group expressed “harsh criticism” of then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, accusing them of failing to defend the military legal establishment from political attacks. “They are not defending us,” one participant reportedly wrote.

Two options were debated: holding a private briefing for defense correspondents, or executing what was described as a “targeted leak.” Ultimately, the latter was chosen. Within days, the footage reached Channel 12, triggering the firestorm that has now engulfed the IDF’s upper ranks.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, JNS reported that Tomer-Yerushalmi appeared via video link rather than in person, citing medical distress following her disappearance and alleged suicide attempt. Her attorneys argued that she was in no condition for continued interrogation and requested that her detention be commuted to house arrest.

The court rejected the plea, citing risks of evidence tampering and coordination with other suspects. “There remains a credible threat that investigative processes could be obstructed,” Judge Kotin wrote in her decision.

In addition to Solomesh, other officers from the Military Advocate General’s Office are expected to face questioning in the coming days, as the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 national crimes unit widens its probe.

A police spokesperson told JNS that investigators were pursuing leads relating not only to the leak itself but also to potential financial irregularities and “misuse of authority within the MAG’s office.”

The affair has become a lightning rod for broader debates over ethics, accountability, and the politicization of Israel’s military institutions. Within hours of Tomer-Yerushalmi’s disappearance, commentators across the ideological spectrum weighed in, some framing her as a scapegoat for systemic dysfunction and others as a symbol of elite arrogance.

As the JNS report observed, the right-wing bloc in the Knesset has seized upon the scandal as proof that Israel’s judicial and military legal hierarchies have become “unmoored from the public they serve.”

Meanwhile, defense officials warned that the investigation risks eroding morale within the IDF. “This case is not just about one officer—it’s about the credibility of our entire military justice system,” one senior figure told JNS. “If the public begins to see our commanders as corrupt or self-interested, the damage could last for generations.”

The Sde Teiman case emerged against the backdrop of Israel’s protracted campaign against Hamas following the October 7, 2023 massacre, which left the nation scarred and enraged. The detention center in question, a temporary facility for captured Hamas operatives, became a focal point for controversy over detainee treatment and the pressures facing IDF personnel.

As JNS reported, recent medical assessments submitted to the court suggested that the accused reservists may have been wrongfully implicated, and that the Hamas detainee at the center of the affair had since been deported to Gaza as part of last month’s ceasefire arrangement. These revelations have only intensified public outrage over Tomer-Yerushalmi’s decision to leak the footage.

The question now looming over Israel’s security establishment is whether Tomer-Yerushalmi acted as a rogue officer motivated by self-preservation—or as the catalyst for a much deeper institutional reckoning. For now, her detention continues, and her future remains uncertain.

In the words of one former senior prosecutor quoted by JNS, “This case is a mirror held up to the IDF’s conscience. It exposes the tension between transparency and loyalty, between law and morale, between justice and survival.”

What began as an internal investigation into misconduct has now metastasized into a national drama — a clash of ethics, politics, and the burden of leadership in wartime Israel.

As the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court prepares to revisit her detention order on Friday, Israel’s defense establishment braces for the next chapter of a scandal that has already shaken its foundations and cast a long shadow over the nation’s most revered institution.