Israeli police have arrested the military's former top lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the country's national security minister has said, after she admitted leaking a video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee.
Former advocate general Tomer-Yerushalmi disappeared for several hours yesterday after announcing her resignation, with it later confirmed that she had been detained.
According to a copy of her resignation letter, published by Israeli media last Friday, Ms Tomer-Yerushalmi acknowledged that her office had released the video to the media last year during an international uproar over prisoner mistreatment.
Five reservists have been formally charged since the video was leaked in 2024. Among the charges they faced was using a "sharp object" to stab a detainee.
According to Israeli media, a Tel Aviv court ordered that Ms Tomer-Yerushalmi be remanded in custody until noon on Wednesday.
Public broadcaster Kan reported she was accused of "fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and disclosure of information by a public servant".
She is implicated along with another member of the military prosecution.
On Friday, the army announced that Ms Tomer-Yerushalmi had resigned from her post pending an investigation into leaked footage taken at the Sde Teiman military base last year.
The case began in August 2024 when Israel's Channel 12 broadcast footage from Sde Teiman, which has been used to hold Palestinians from Gaza during the war triggered by Hamas's cross-border assault on 7 October 2023.
Surveillance camera footage appeared to show soldiers interfering with a detainee, but a direct view of the alleged assault was obscured by a wall of troops holding up riot shields.
The video was picked up by several media outlets and the case triggered international outrage and protests within Israel.
The Israeli military said in February that it had filed charges against five reservist soldiers connected with mistreatment at Sde Teiman.
The statement said they were charged with "acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee's bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee's rectum".
It added "the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear".
The statement said that the abuse took place on 5 July 2024 during a search of the detainee, who was taken to an area adjacent to the prison, blindfolded and handcuffed.
It mentions numerous pieces of evidence gathered during the investigation, including footage from surveillance cameras and medical documents.
The military prosecutor's office informed the lawyers representing some of the soldiers in the case that the detainee who was supposed to testify against them had been deported to Gaza in October.
The leaked video piled pressure on Israel's political and military leaders during the Gaza war.
In October 2024, a UN commission found that thousands of detainees were subjected to "widespread and systematic abuse" in Israeli military camps and detention facilities that amounted to a "war crime and crime against humanity of torture".
Israel called the accusations "outrageous", adding it was "fully committed to international legal standards regarding the treatment of detainees".
