Itai Ofir will become the military advocate general later this month after Defense Minister Israel Katz ratified his appointment Sunday. He will succeed Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned and admitted to authorizing the leak of the Sde Teiman detainee abuse video.
Ofir will be promoted to the rank of major general before entering the role on November 24, Katz’s office announced on Monday, amid reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was shocked and angered by the appointment of Ofir, and had not expected the defense minister to ratify it.
Channel 12 news previously reported that Netanyahu’s son Yair had cited multiple grievances against Ofir and wanted the appointment canceled.
Ofir is an attorney who served as the Defense Ministry legal adviser between 2017 and 2024. Before that, he worked as a lawyer in the private sector in Israel and the United States.
In the military, Ofir was a combat officer in the Givati Brigade, and in the reserves, he served in the Negev Brigade.
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This means that Ofir will be promoted by five ranks, from captain to major general. Such promotions are rare but not unprecedented in the military.
Former IDF Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is released to house arrest outside the Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramla, November 7, 2025. (Flash90 )
‘Idiot’: Likud MK Gotliv attacks police chief over investigation
Meanwhile, coalition lawmakers have been pressuring police to allow Asher Kula, the state ombudsman for judges, to oversee the investigation into Tomer-Yerushalmi, who confessed to leaking footage purporting to show troops severely abusing a Gazan detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention center.
Kula was picked last week by Justice Minister Yariv Levin in a bid to shut Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara out of the investigation. The Likud minister claims she is compromised, after a prior internal probe that she oversaw failed to implicate Tomer-Yerushalmi in the leak.
On Monday, Likud MK Tally Gotliv called Israel Police chief Danny Levy an “idiot” over his reported refusal to give investigation material regarding the video leak to Kula pending a ruling by the High Court of Justice on his appointment.
“There is no constitutional crisis here — not even something resembling a constitutional crisis. We simply have an idiot police commissioner,” she told Radio Kol Barama, questioning why the senior law enforcement officer does not summon Baharav-Miara for questioning in the affair.
Gotliv appeared to reference a comment by a senior law enforcement source to Hebrew media on Friday that officers thwarted a government bid to “trample democracy” by handing evidence to Kula without the High Court’s approval.
The Military Advocate General’s Office “has turned into a criminal organization that employs the methods of a criminal organization,” Likud MK Moshe Saada told The Times of Israel, echoing comments he made in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee moments before.
Everyone, “including the prosecutor’s office, maintained a bond of silence, and there was no righteous man in Sodom who would say, ‘Guys, there is a conflict of interest here, and therefore this system must be fixed,’” he asserted.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv arrives at a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Baharav-Miara, whom the government is seeking to oust, argued last week that Levin lacks the authority to appoint someone in her place. The High Court is slated to issue a ruling on Tuesday morning as to who will supervise the probe.
Many right-wing lawmakers have accused Baharav-Miara, without evidence, of helping to cover up the Sde Teiman video leak, which they characterize as a “blood libel” against the State of Israel. Five soldiers accused of the alleged abuse in the video have been indicted, but not yet convicted, on charges of causing severe injury and aggravated assault.
In the meantime, police are conducting the investigation independently, but National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir met Sunday with the police chief and Boaz Blatt, the head of the police investigations and intelligence division, to demand they loop Kula into the investigation.
Prior to the meeting, Kula approached Blatt and asked him to hand over the investigation materials, but the senior officer refused, according to a Ynet report on Sunday. Blatt notified Levy of Kula’s request, and the police chief doubled down, instructing officers not to share materials with anyone until the court decides on the matter.
Kula appeared to backtrack after the meeting between Ben Gvir, Levy, and Blatt, and announced he would refrain from acting on the investigation until a ruling is handed down.
Ben Gvir, who picked Levy for police chief last year, has previously clashed with Levy when the officer publicly pledged to obey the High Court, which the government has been seeking to weaken through its judicial overhaul program.
Judge Asher Kula at the Nazareth District Court, June 7, 2022. (David Cohen/Flash90)
Separately, the police chief confirmed on Sunday night that Tomer-Yerushalmi’s hospitalization earlier that day came after she attempted suicide.
“Her life isn’t rosy,” Levy said of the disgraced prosecutor. Reports earlier said Tomer-Yerushalmi had swallowed some 20 sleeping pills.
“If she committed the offense, this affects how the army looks, how soldiers behave. We send our kids to an organization where they should be sure that nobody is leaking things, and that’s why we’re probing it,” he added.
The Sde Teiman leak investigation has emerged as the latest front in the government’s ongoing assault on the judiciary, after Baharav-Miara ordered the probe reopened late last month due to new information.
Following the renewal of the probe, Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted to having initiated the leak and resigned as military advocate general. She was taken into police custody last Sunday after going missing for hours amid fears she had taken her own life.
Law enforcement officials were unable to locate Tomer-Yerushalmi’s phone, leading them to suspect that she staged a suicide attempt to dispose of digital evidence. A civilian swimmer found the phone by chance on Friday and handed it over to the police.
Tomer-Yerushalmi was released to house arrest on Friday after posting bail, but was transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital on Sunday morning after she swallowed the sleeping pills and medics were called to her home in Ramat Hasharon.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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