News - Middle East: The Israeli military is set to appoint a new advocate general after a scandal forced the resignation of its top lawyer, who admitted to leaking footage showing soldiers raping a Palestinian detainee at a notorious prison. 

Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz was expected to meet the army chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, on Sunday to discuss the appointment of a new military advocate general.

Israeli military prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi stepped down on Friday after confirming her involvement in leaking surveillance video from the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp during Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

The admission had embroiled the prosecutor in a firestorm of criticism from the far-right politicians and hawkish ministers dominating Israeli politics, who say her actions betrayed the entity.

The resignation came after the Israeli army launched a criminal investigation into the leak.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the leak had caused "enormous damage" to Israel.

"This is perhaps the most severe propaganda attack that Israel has experienced since its establishment," Netanyahu said.

The footage, published in August last year, showed a group of soldiers at Sde Teiman gang-raping a Palestinian detainee while forming a human barrier around him.

The leak came amid backlash from extremist Israeli politicians and ministers over a military investigation into the assault.

At least nine Israeli soldiers were questioned over the assault in late July, sparking widespread anger across Israel. Only five were indicted for "severe abuse" of the detainee, but not for rape. The trial remains ongoing. 

On Sunday, the soldiers involved in the brutal rape incident called for the case to be dropped.

The original indictment said that "for 15 minutes, the accused kicked the detainee, stomped on him, stood on his body, hit him and pushed him all over his body, including with clubs, dragged him along the ground, and used a taser gun on him, including on his head."

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper previously reported that the victim of the gang rape suffered a ruptured bowel, severe anal and lung injuries, broken ribs, and required surgery.

Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli prison authorities and the military have been widely accused of abusing Palestinian detainees, including through rape, starvation, torture, and the denial of medical treatment.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, 80 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since early October 2023.

In March, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found evidence of the systematic use of sexual violence by Israeli officers against Palestinians.

The commission said it had documented cases of rape and sexual assault of male detainees, "including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus, and the insertion of objects such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables into the anus and rectum".

One victim told the commission that while he was "suspended from the ceiling", officers inserted a metal tool "into his penis repeatedly until it started bleeding, and he fainted".

In August, war monitor Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reported that 88 percent of Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes by its soldiers since October 2023 have either been closed or produced no findings.

The monitor stated that these findings suggest Israel is seeking to create a "pattern of impunity" by failing to carry out conclusive investigations into cases involving "the most severe or public accusations of wrongdoing by their forces."

Rights groups and world organizations say criminal investigations against Israeli soldiers rarely result in prosecutions in Israel.

Source: Press TV