A Magen David Adom team was dispatched early Sunday to the home of outgoing Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi in Ramat Hasharon and took her to a hospital. Officials said she is conscious and her life is not in danger at this stage.
The incident occurred a week after reports that Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was suspended from her post over suspicions linked to the Sde Teiman leak affair, had been out of contact for several hours.
Over the weekend her personal cellphone was found in the sea after days of searches. Around the same time she was released to house arrest after spending about a week in detention at Neve Tirza Prison. The Magen David Adom call came in at 6:50 a.m., and an intensive care team was sent to her home. Authorities are examining whether the incident was a suicide attempt, after the Magen David Adom call reported an apparent overdose of medication.
Police confirmed Friday that the phone recovered earlier that day on Herzliya Beach belonged to Tomer-Yerushalmi. The phone was located by open-water swimmer Noa Itiel, who said she noticed it on the sea floor during her morning swim. “I pressed the side button, and suddenly a photo appeared of someone I recognized from the media as the Military Advocate General,” Itiel said. She handed the phone to police investigators.
The police cyber division began examining the device’s data, checking when and under whose name it was purchased and mapping its connections to cell towers to determine when it was turned on and off. A police source described the circumstances of the phone’s discovery as “unusual.”
Against the backdrop of ongoing disputes over the handling of the Sde Teiman leak affair, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Friday approved Tomer-Yerushalmi’s release to house arrest for 10 days. The court also barred her from contacting other individuals involved in the case for 55 days.
Tomer-Yerushalmi, who admitted involvement in leaking the video and appeared remotely by video link from Neve Tirza Prison, is suspected of fraud and breach of trust, abuse of authority, obstruction of justice, and providing false information as a public official. She posted bail of NIS 20,000. Police did not request a passport deposit or a travel ban.
She was photographed leaving Neve Tirza on Friday for the first time since the affair began, walking quickly and declining to answer reporters’ questions.
During questioning, Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted that she did not inform former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, or Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara about her role in the leak of the video, which allegedly showed IDF reservists abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman base.
The core of the investigation focuses on suspicions that Tomer-Yerushalmi gave false information about the internal inquiry into the leak. Former Defense Minister Gallant said last week that she “knowingly lied” to him about the investigation. “Right after the Sde Teiman video was leaked, I ordered a swift probe to identify the source,” Gallant said. “When I summoned her to my office and asked why the investigation was stalling, she falsely claimed that dozens of people had seen the video and that the process was simply taking time.”
Sources close to former Chief of Staff Halevi have also denied that he knew about the leak. Following publication of the video, which appeared to show reservists assaulting a detained Palestinian, the Military Advocate General’s office said it had launched an internal review led by Tomer-Yerushalmi’s deputy, Col. Gal Asael. The office reported that investigators failed to find the source of the leak. That statement was later submitted to the Supreme Court as part of a state response filed by the Attorney General’s Office last September — a claim now understood to have been false. Asael has also been questioned as part of the investigation.