In a bombshell decision, Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir on Thursday ordered the cancellation of an indictment against five IDF reserve soldiers who were accused of severely abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in 2024.
According to the indictment filed last year, the five soldiers severely beat and assaulted the prisoner after he was brought to the detention facility, leaving him with grave injuries, including broken ribs and an internal tear in his rectum. The case made headlines around the world.
The IDF said that Ofir’s decision to cancel the charges came in the wake of “significant developments” in the case since the indictment was filed, and following a review of all considerations, evidence, and relevant circumstances.
A document summarizing the reasons behind Ofir’s decision to cancel the charges listed several factors, including “complexity regarding the existing evidence,” and the release of the detainee himself back to Gaza in the October 2025 ceasefire, without him testifying on the matter.
It also cited an “abuse of process” claim by the defendants against the indictments — in reference to the scandal involving the leak by the former military advocate general of security camera footage from Sde Teiman purportedly showing the abuse, which the defendants claimed compromised the legal process.
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Ofir’s decision also took into consideration “procedural difficulties” regarding the transfer of investigative materials from the police investigation, “in a manner that harms the defendants’ right to a fair trial.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and several cabinet ministers all hailed the cancellation of the indictments, with the PMO and others calling the charges against the five “a blood libel” that damaged Israel’s international image.
A still from a leaked video broadcast by Channel 12 news on August 6, 2024, which purports to show troops abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel on July 5, 2024. (Screenshot: Channel 12)
Meanwhile, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel accused Ofir of whitewashing the abuse and said that the detainee’s hospitalization following the alleged assault proved the gravity of the abuse he had suffered.
A six-page document summarizing the decision issued by the IDF on Thursday acknowledged that the detainee’s initial testimony to investigators, the medical records of his injuries, and the security camera footage “presented a grave and troubling picture” of the defendants’ actions.
It said, however, that the video footage was not conclusive, since the guards seen in it blocked the camera’s view of the incident with their riot shields. It noted that the detainee gave differing versions of the events to different officials.
The fact that the detainee was released back to Gaza in October 2025 meant it would be significantly harder to prove the charges in the indictment, the document added.
The summary also stated that since it was not certain the detainee could now testify in the case and be cross-examined by defense lawyers, the defendants’ ability to receive a fair trial had been harmed.
“The accumulation of all these exceptional circumstances, and their impact on the fundamental and basic right to a fair trial, requires, in the view of the military advocate general, the cancellation of the indictment,” the IDF said in announcing the decision.
The military stated that Ofir had updated IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on the decision, and that Zamir “supports, appreciates, and backs the military advocate general and expressed to him his appreciation for the process carried out since he entered the position.”
The IDF added that “in light of the serious professional failure that was revealed” in the case, Zamir had also “instructed that lessons be learned and that all necessary steps be taken to prevent similar cases in the future.”
The Sde Teiman scandal has repeatedly roiled the country since it became public in July 2024.
Blindfolded Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip in a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel, winter 2023. (Breaking The Silence via AP)
Several coalition MKs and even a cabinet minister broke into the Sde Teiman military base when the suspects were arrested on July 29, 2024, in an apparent effort to halt the arrests, and right-wing activists then broke into a second military base where the suspects were held in detention and tussled with IDF soldiers there. No indictments were brought against any of those who broke into those bases.
The arrests came in the wake of numerous media reports, based on testimony from Israeli officials and Palestinian detainees, of severe cases of abuse and even torture at Sde Teiman. A recent report by Israel’s Public Defender’s Office corroborated these allegations.
The footage purportedly showing the abuse was then leaked to Channel 12, causing further outrage both from those horrified by the apparent abuse and from others protesting the leak itself, claiming it created a false impression.
Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi attends a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, August 11, 2024. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
The scandal intensified when, in late October 2025, then-military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi became the prime suspect in the leak she was herself ostensibly investigating. Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned from her post and admitted to leaking the video. She is now facing criminal proceedings.
Tomer-Yerushalmi went missing for several hours on November 2, sparking fears of suicide, before being found alive on a beach following a massive search operation. But a further twist was the disappearance of her phone during the episode — considered a key piece of evidence. For days afterwards, the country was gripped by the search for her device by police and volunteers on the beach and in the shallows. It was eventually found by a bather.
Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir (center), IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (left), and Defense Minister Israel Katz (right), are seen at a ceremony marking Ofir’s entry to the role at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, November 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Several other top officials in the MAG Corps were suspended from service over the leak amid the investigation. The IDF said that Zamir had instructed that proceedings relating to personnel be completed as soon as possible.
Ofir entered the role in November 2025. In one of his first, and controversial moves, he decided to close a criminal case against a senior reserves officer who faced charges over his involvement in the deaths of a soldier and a civilian researcher in southern Lebanon in November 2024.
The military said that “a core mission of the Military Advocate General’s Corps is to enforce the law and hold accountable those who violate it.”
“The MAG Corps will continue to pursue this mission professionally and independently,” the IDF said in a statement.
Numerous government ministers hailed the cancellation of the indictments.
“The blood libel known as the ‘Sde Teiman affair’… which smeared Israel’s reputation around the world in an unprecedented way, has come to an end,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement to the press.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, who selected Ofir for the role of military advocate general, also lauded the decision, saying that “justice has been done.”
“This trial was born in sin by the previous military advocate general, using a blood libel against IDF soldiers and criminal investigative methods, and I am glad that justice has been done and the trial has been canceled,” Katz said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also praised the cancellation of the indictments, saying the move was itself “an indictment of the justice system, the previous military advocate general, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.” He accused them of “stitching up” the indicted soldiers.
“Those who need to be held accountable for this grave affair are those officials in the legal system who took part in this criminal conduct and damaged the good name of IDF soldiers,” added the far-right minister, who has implemented harsh conditions against Palestinian prisoners since taking office.
Similarly, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli called the indictments “a blood libel” that did “unprecedented damage” to Israel’s image abroad.
“This affair further exposed the depth of the decay and corruption of the Israeli legal system, headed by the ousted military advocate general and the ousted attorney general,” said Chikli.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel alleged that the entire Sde Teiman abuse scandal was being whitewashed.
“The condition in which the detainee arrived at the hospital after being attacked in the detention facility leaves no room for doubt as to the acts committed against him and their severity, and the footage released from the security cameras at the scene clearly indicates that these [acts] were inflicted on him by the guards, who abused him with blood-curdling cruelty for a long time,” the organization said.