A political and security storm has erupted in Israel following revelations that Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the IDF’s Chief Military Advocate General, personally ordered the leak of an internal investigation video during the height of the war against Hamas.

The footage — allegedly manipulated and edited to portray Israeli soldiers abusing a detained Hamas terrorist — was classified and prohibited for publication as it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Within days of the leak, the video was widely circulated by Hamas, Iran, Qatar and pro-Palestinian outlets across international and mainstream media. Hamas and its supporters exploited the footage to undermine Israel’s credibility, portraying the IDF as illegitimate aggressors and using it to erode global sympathy and justification for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

Following internal uproar, multiple investigations were launched — by Israel’s Minister of Defense, the Knesset’s Defense Committee, and even Israel’s Supreme Court. In each of these proceedings, Major General Tomer-Yerushalmi denied any knowledge of the source of the leak and recommended closing the case — despite the fact that she herself had authorized the leak. As the IDF’s Chief Military Advocate General, she reportedly fabricated an internal investigation into the very leak she had personally ordered.

The scandal has been described by senior political and defense figures in Israel as one of the gravest breaches of trust in the country’s military history.

Legal experts note that, under Israeli law, leaking sensitive war-related material that aids the enemy constitutes aiding the enemy during wartime, a crime tantamount to treason, carrying a potential life sentence.

However, sources within Israel’s security establishment have voiced concern that the case may be downplayed or politically softened, reframed merely as “providing false statements” to the Supreme Court — rather than the far more serious charges of treason and aiding an enemy terror organization during wartime.