Sde Teimanlocated in the desert of Negevsouth of Israelis a military installation that, after the attacks of Hamas of the October 7, 2023became the main detention center for thousands of detained palestinians during Israeli operations in Loop.
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Various human rights organizations —such as B’Tselem, HaMoked and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel— have denounced that Sde Teiman functioned as a secret detention space, without access to lawyers, with inhuman conditionsphysical torture, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment. Testimonies from former detainees describe a system of confinement in outdoor cageswhere prisoners are blindfolded and handcuffed for weeks, and subjected to violent interrogations without judicial supervision.
One of the clips from the video showing abuse of a Palestinian prisoner in Sde Teiman prison. (Video capture).
Broken ribs and a tear in the rectum
The issue involving Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi51 years old, begins on July 5, 2024, according to Times of Israel, a Palestinian prisoner who was in Sde Teiman He was hospitalized. He had broken ribs and a tear in his rectum, after having been allegedly beaten and assaulted by reservists of “Force 100.”a reserve unit of the Military Police in charge of guarding terrorist suspects at the base.
On July 29, following an investigation by the Military Police investigation unit, nine reservist soldiers suspected of participating in the beating were arrested in Sde Teimanand another suspect was arrested at his home a day later.
Right-wing politicians and activists expressed outrage at the arrests. Furthermore, a mob broke into Sde Teiman in an apparent attempt to prevent arrests.
In the following days, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized military lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi for the arrest of the soldiers.
Netanyahu accused her of “selective application of the law,” while the right-wing extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, He published a video where he tells him to “leave the soldiers alone.”
After learning of the first complaints, Tomer-Yerushalmi, in her capacity as the army’s chief lawyerwas the one ordered the formal opening of the military criminal investigation and the preventive detention of suspected soldiers.
The horror video
The breaking point came on August 6, 2024, when Channel 12 reporter Guy Peleg published a video which includes several clips from security cameras Sde Teiman where images of the torture to the Palestinian detainee.
Peleg narrates that the video shows soldiers sodomizing the detainee and says that the injuries to his rectum were caused by them.
In the brutal images you can see Palestinian detainee naked from the waist down, with his hands tied and surrounded by several soldiers. The uniformed men, some with riot shields, push him and mock him while one of them holds a long metal object that, according to the investigation, is inserted or simulated being used in the prisoner’s rectal area. During the attack, the detainee writhes and screams, while the soldiers laugh or make derogatory comments.
The disclosure of the video caused international outrage and reactions within the army itself.
In February 2025, Five soldiers, who are under house arrest, were formally charged with crimes such as causing serious injuries and assault under aggravated circumstances.. Their identities have not been released.
The formal accusation does not accuse the soldiers of the crime of rape, and indicates that the detainee was injured after being stabbed in the buttocks, near the rectum, with a sharp object, indicates Times of Israel.
Resignation and prison for Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi
The legal chief of the Israeli Army, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi. (Israel Defense Forces).
On October 29, by order of the attorney general Gali Baharav-Miarathe police opened a criminal investigation into the leak. Attorney Tomer-Yerushalmi took a leave of absence.
Two days later, Tomer-Yerushalmi announced his resignation and admitted to having approved the leak of the abuse video in Sde Teiman.
In his resignation letter, he said that approved the leak “in an attempt to counter false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.”
He was referring to some right-wing politicians who maintain that the case is a fabrication.
“I take full responsibility for any material that has been disseminated to the media from within the unit,” he added.
On November 2, Tomer-Yerushalmi He disappeared for several hours. He could not be reached by phone, triggering a massive search involving police, rescue teams and the military. She was finally found safe and sound.
She was then formally detained on suspicion of obstruction of justice, fraud, breach of trust and abuse of power.
Four of the detained reservists appeared on Sunday with their faces covered with balaclavas.
Last Sunday, four of the reservists who covered their faces with balaclavas appeared at a press conference in front of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem with their lawyers to demand that the trial be dismissed.
Adi Keidar, a lawyer with the right-wing legal aid organization Honenu, charged that his clients are subject to “a flawed, biased and completely corrupt legal process.”
A warning to those who leak evidence
For the international journalist and analyst Carlos Novoathe arrest of Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi It is a warning to those who leak military information. He added that at that time of war truce in Loopin Israel There is a political infighting between those who support and reject Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It is a direct warning to those within Israel “dare to disclose evidence of military abuses, in a context of strong political polarization between supporters and detractors of Benjamin Netanyahu,” Novoa said to The Commerce.
“Exhibiting the atrocities that some members of the Israeli army may have committed reveals things that everyone knows, or that is suspected and discussed, but without evidence. So, leaking a video is proof, it marks a before and after in the way in which the Israeli Armed Forces treat Palestinian prisoners”he emphasized.
“This is not something new, it is something that has been reported for years, even long before the last war that began on October 7, 2023, but it had not been evident like it is now with this video”he insisted.
In Novoa’s opinion, the reaction of the Israeli State to this leak reflects the tension between the need to preserve the institutional image of the Army and the growing internal pressures from human rights groups such as B’Tselem or Breaking the Silence.
At the international level, Novoa maintained that the episode adds a new evidence to the existing accusation against Israel, and could strengthen the arguments of those who have brought alleged military excesses to the International Criminal Court.
“It is a clear example of the excesses committed by law enforcement forces against civilians.”, he indicated.
Who is Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi?
The former legal chief of the Israeli armed forces, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi. (NOAM MOSKOWITZ / OFFICE OF THE KNESET SPEAKER).
Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi born in Netanyaa coastal city in the Central District of Israel. Graduated in law from Hebrew University of Jerusalemcompleted a master in law in the Tel Aviv University and another in the United States Army Advocate General Schoolin Charlottesville, a training that allowed him to build one of the most outstanding careers within the Israeli military legal system.
His career began in team of the chief prosecutor of the Army. between the 2007 and 2015 served as military judge in one of the most tense stages of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just after the Second Intifada.
During those years, he learned first-hand about cases of suicide bombings, murders and mass arrests of Palestiniansas well as the Israeli military presence in Gaza and the West Bank.
Her profile was consolidated as that of a rigorous jurist, knowledgeable both in the field of combat and in international humanitarian law.
In it 2019the then chief of the General Staff, Aviv Kochavipromoted her to the position of advisor on Gender Equality within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). From that position, she promoted internal policies against sexual harassment and in favor of female inclusion in the military sphere.
Globes magazine included her in its list of the 50 most influential women in Israel in 2022highlighting his role in the cultural transformation of the army.
“I will continue to break down barriers for women in the Army,” she wrote in an Israel Hayom article in 2020, where she defended female representation in leadership positions.
His consecration came in 2021when she was appointed General Counsel of the Armythe highest legal authority of the Israeli armed forces.
From that position, he directly advised the chief of the General Staff and supervised investigations into violations of international law and rules of engagement.
Leading hundreds of lawyers and prosecutors, Tomer-Yerushalmi embodied a new generation of female military leadership. However, that same career that took her to the top of the military legal system ended abruptly a few days ago, and today she is in prison for the most serious scandal in recent years that has shaken the Israeli army.
