Netanyahu Says Sde Teiman Leak ‘Caused Enormous Reputational Damage’ as Legal Fallout Deepens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the leak of video footage showing alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility “caused enormous reputational damage to Israel, to the IDF, and to our soldiers.”

“It is perhaps the most serious public-relations attack Israel has experienced since its founding — I cannot recall one so concentrated and intense,” Netanyahu said. “This requires an independent and impartial inquiry, and I expect that such an investigation will indeed take place.”

The remarks came as political, legal, and international repercussions continued to mount following the resignation of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former Military Advocate General (MAG), who admitted last week that she had approved the leaked footage. The video, filmed in 2024, seemed to show several Israeli soldiers severely beating a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel.

On Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz pressed Tomer-Yerushalmi to resign after she acknowledged authorizing the leak, and she stepped down before he could formally dismiss her. The following day, Justice Minister Yariv Levin informed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that she was barred from any involvement in the inquiry, arguing that her personal connection to the case and the likelihood she would be called to testify created a conflict of interest. Baharav-Miara rejected Levin’s directive on Sunday, calling his “political involvement in the investigation erroneous, baseless, and harmful.”

Meanwhile, at a press conference organized by the Honenu legal aid organization outside the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday, attorneys for five IDF reservists charged in the Sde Teiman assault case said their clients could not receive a fair trial because of the leak.

“On October 7 we left our families, children, parents, unquestioningly. We knew we had to defend the country,” said one of the masked defendants. “Since that day, dozens of fighters are still fighting for justice not on the battlefield but in courtrooms. Dozens of fighters who need the backing of the country and the system, because they defended our home and we are here only in their merit.”

The soldiers were indicted in February for beating and seriously injuring a Palestinian security detainee brought to Sde Teiman in July 2024. The assault reportedly left the man with broken ribs and internal injuries.

Honenu representative Moshe Polski said the judicial process was “tainted from the start” because of the leak. “The wheel cannot be turned back,” he said. The wife of one of the defendants added that the country had “spat in the face” of her husband, saying he had “collapsed from the inside, not on the battlefield but because of the country.” The video leak has reignited attention over conditions at Sde Teiman, a facility used to hold Palestinian security terrorists and detainees since the war began.

International reactions have followed quickly. The Washington Post wrote that the episode highlights “how a prosecutor such as Tomer-Yerushalmi, whose office is viewed by many human-rights groups as being too soft on the wartime conduct of Israeli soldiers, faces heavy pressure from Israeli politicians to refrain from aggressively prosecuting alleged wrongdoing.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross also issued a Hebrew-language statement after the IDF announced a criminal investigation into the leak. “The purpose of visits to people who have been deprived of their liberty, and to detention facilities in general, is purely humanitarian,” the ICRC said, reiterating that it has “repeatedly called to receive information about Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities and to be allowed to visit those detainees.”

The IDF investigation into the leak is ongoing, with the Justice Ministry expected to determine whether additional disciplinary or criminal proceedings will follow. Netanyahu’s call for an independent probe underscores the growing tension between the military justice system, political leadership, and international scrutiny over Israel’s wartime conduct.