Israel’s military justice system is facing renewed scrutiny after its top lawyer has resigned amid a scandal over leaked footage showing soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman prison camp.
Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the outgoing Military Advocate General (MAG), admitted to leaking the video, recorded by prison surveillance cameras, to the media in August 2024. The footage, aired by Israel’s Channel 12, appeared to show several Israeli soldiers forming a human barrier around a restrained Palestinian detainee while committing sexual assault. Tomer-Yerushalmi said she authorised the leak to counter mounting pressure from far-right groups accusing the military of betraying its soldiers by investigating the case. Her admission prompted an internal probe into the leak and led to calls from the accused soldiers’ lawyers to drop the rape trial entirely.
The case has triggered national outrage. Nine soldiers were questioned, but only five were indicted. This as for “severe abuse,” not rape. According to media reports, the victim suffered catastrophic injuries, including a ruptured bowel, broken ribs and burns caused by a taser. The accused soldiers, represented by the far-right legal aid organisation Honenu, have demanded the charges be dropped and that prosecutors face investigation instead.
Rather than address the content, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the leak itself as “perhaps the most severe propaganda attack that the state of Israel has experienced since its establishment,” claiming it had caused “enormous damage” to Israel’s public image.
The Sde Teiman case has drawn global attention to Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees since the war on Gaza began in October 2023. The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found earlier this year that Israeli forces had engaged in the systematic use of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, including rape with foreign objects and the use of electrical probes to inflict burns.
At least 70 Palestinian detainees are reported to have died in Israeli custody since the conflict began, with widespread allegations of torture, starvation and denial of medical care.
An investigation by AOAV in August 2025 found that 88 per cent of Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes since October 2023 have been either closed without findings or left indefinitely “under review.”
Only one case has resulted in a prison sentence. AOAV concluded that this pattern suggests Israel is seeking to create a pattern of impunity by failing to carry out conclusive investigations into cases involving the most severe or public accusations of wrongdoing by their forces.
In light of this, the Sde Teiman scandal combining sexual violence, institutional secrecy and political interference appears emblematic of that broader pattern.
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