A protest at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheva against the detention of Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of assaulting a Hamas terrorist, July 29, 2024. Photo by Dudu Greenspan/Flash90.
by David Isaac
(JNS) — Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir announced he was dropping the indictments in the Sde Teiman affair, the Israel Defense Forces said on March 12.
“In light of the significant developments that have occurred since the filing of the indictment in the ‘Sde Teiman’ case, the chief military prosecutor has found it appropriate to order today the cancellation of the indictment against the five defendants in the file,” the IDF posted to X.
The five IDF reservists were indicted on Feb. 19, 2025, out of nine soldiers originally arrested. They served in Force 100, a unit of the Military Police responsible for high-risk security prisoners. They were held in July in a case concerning the alleged abuse of a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility in southern Israel.
On Nov. 4, 2025, Ofir took over as military advocate general following the dismissal of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi due to her role in leaking a video connected to the affair.
Tomer-Yerushalmi said she wanted to “fend off false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities,” referring to anger directed at her office by right-wing lawmakers over the case.
She is now behind bars.
That video, leaked in August, was the most salacious piece of evidence, purportedly showing the alleged incident, though in fact the video showed little that was conclusive. A medical opinion said that the evidence pointed to a self-inflicted wound. Anti-Israel groups charged that the soldiers were raping the Hamas terrorist.
The defense asserts that the terrorist attacked security personnel when they arrested him following intelligence that he had planned a riot. During the arrest, he attacked and bit one of the soldiers. In the course of restraining him, he received the wounds that prosecutors attribute to sexual assault.
The medical opinion, written by Professor Alon Pikarsky, director of general surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Medical Center and a board-certified general surgeon specializing in colorectal surgery, was revealed during a closed hearing at the Beit Lid military court in the summer of 2024, according to the report at the time.
“Since there was damage to the rectum, there is no doubt that the insertion of a foreign body caused the wound. However, there is much doubt regarding the way and mechanism of the insertion,” wrote the physician, who has operated on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Pikarsky, the lack of damage to the terrorist’s anus suggests that he caused the wound himself, “as it is precisely the self-insertion of a foreign body, which can also cause a rupture in the rectum, that will not cause damage to the anus itself since the inserter (the patient) will ensure a gentle and non-traumatic insertion of the foreign body.
Tomer-Yerushalmi’s behavior was cited in Thursday’s announcement as one of the reasons the case was dropped. It noted “the conduct of senior figures in the Military Prosecution and in the IDF law enforcement system in this affair, and its exceptional and unprecedented circumstances.”
Also cited was the fact that the alleged victim cannot be interrogated as he was released to the Gaza Strip in October, apparently without his testimony being taken.
The Sde Teiman incident garnered world attention and was seized upon by anti-Israel NGOs, U.N. officials and the Hamas terrorist group as evidence of Israeli abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
Shortly after Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted her role in the leak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused her of “perhaps the most severe public relations attack the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.”
Netanyahu said the PR damage Jerusalem suffered due to the leak was more intensely focused than any previous assault on Israel’s international legitimacy that he could recall.
“This requires an independent, impartial investigation, and I expect such an investigation to take place,” the premier said.
Ministry of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, reacting to the news, said the Sde Teiman affair caused “unprecedented damage to the State of Israel in world public opinion, as we proved in a comprehensive report published by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
“If until the event it was clear that atrocities and rape were the domain of Hamas’s murderers, after this false libel was established, an equation of moral symmetry between the IDF and Hamas was established in the world’s leading media networks,” he said.
Chikli expressed satisfaction that finally “the truth has come to light” and extended his sympathies to the soldiers who were arrested, and their families, “who went through a real hell together.”
He congratulated the new military advocate general for having the “backbone and courage” to make a decision that acknowledged the “terrible injustices committed during this affair.”
(Includes background from a JNS article from August 2024)
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