IDF sources had been skeptical on Monday about reviews from Channel 14 that Protection Minister Israel Katz would return to reservist service the 5 Drive 100 jail guards linked to the Sde Teiman scandal of beating a Palestinian detainee.
Though the 5 guards had been technically exonerated on March 12 when the indictment in opposition to them was cancelled, the language and justifications used for the cancellation had been phrased a lot nearer to the wording used for closing a case because of “inadequate proof for a conviction” versus “the accusation was groundless.”
In different phrases, the IDF authorized division didn’t decide that the 5 guards had been innocent, however slightly that, within the distinctive circumstances of the case, the hurt to their rights to a good trial and the hurt to the proof and to the prosecution’s continued skill to maneuver the indictment ahead warranted withdrawing the indictment.
The truth is, IDF Army Advocate Normal Maj. Gen. Itay Offir particularly discovered that there have been a lot of vital components of proof which appeared to help a conviction, discovering solely that these components had been incomplete, for instance, as a result of the Palestinian detainee-victim had been despatched again to Gaza in October 2025 with out testifying.
In such circumstances, whereas the guards actually not have any felony prices hanging over their heads, it could be extremely uncommon to return them to any type of commonplace service.
Furthermore, Katz, as protection minister, has the facility to approve or maintain up sure senior appointments, however not the facility to order the IDF to return troopers to service who’ve been caught up in authorized proceedings.
IDF sources mentioned they had been shocked by the information, had not heard about it earlier than it was reported by Channel 14, and appeared skeptical that any reinstatement would really happen.
In different phrases, Katz can’t essentially order the IDF to reinstate the, however at most can put political stress on IDF Chief of Workers Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir is to take action, however Zamir has proven a readiness to defy Katz if he views the protection minister as appearing politically.
Alternatively, Katz might don’t have any actual intention of reinstating them, and the leaked announcement could also be solely to play for political factors because the nation nears elections.
At press time, Katz’s workplace had not responded to inquiries about whether or not he had the authority and authorized foundation to reinstate the guards.
When Offir cancelled the indictment, he defined that the evidentiary difficulties within the case mixed with the scandal of the leaked video surrounding the case resulting in the previous prosecutorial staff themselves being probed, made it too tough to proceed the case.
The controversial case
The case has been probably the most controversial alleged battle crimes case to come back out of the battle thus far: with many Israelis slamming the IDF prosecution for going after the troopers and lots of legal professionals and critics of Israel blasting the prosecution for shifting too slowly on the case, and now closing it.
Exterior main components to the caes embrace that a lot of the federal government had turned in opposition to the Israeli authorized institution over a spread of points by the point the indictment was filed and that a lot of the world was up in arms over alleged torture at Sde Teiman as early as fall 2023, with little motion by Israeli officers to handle these criticism till the Israeli Supreme Court docket ordered Sde Teiman closed in mid-2024.
The case was filed by Offir’s predecessor, Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, in February 2025 in opposition to 5 troopers for the alleged crimes.
Yerushalmi resigned in October 2025 over her unlawful leaking of a video of the alleged beating previous to trial, the place it may have been legally and publicly introduced.
Offir changed her a month later.
From a home political perspective when it comes to the present authorities, the most secure transfer was at all times to tank the Sde Teiman case.
Offir didn’t name the case a “blood libel” as some coalition politicians have finished, however merely closed it based mostly on technical issues, which he blamed on his predecessor.
The technical issues had been actual and lots of: Tomer Yerushalmi leaked a video of the 5 defendants allegedly beating the detainee, harming a few of their truthful trial rights, the lead prosecutor for the case Lt. Col. Lior Ayash is among the officers below a felony probe which disrupted the progress and administration of the case, and the federal government determined to launch the Palestinian detainee who was overwhelmed again to Gaza with out having testified in court docket.
No official has ever defined the rationale for why the Palestinian detainee was launched with out taking pre-trial testimony, a acknowledged process for particular circumstances, which was famously used in opposition to former prime minister Ehud Olmert within the Talansky Affair.
The IDF assertion saying the choice made it clear that IDF Chief of Workers Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir was able to help Offir in whichever path he in the end determined to go.
Closing the case?
However closing the case could also be problematic not just for Offir’s standing inside Israel’s authorized neighborhood, but in addition earlier than the Worldwide Prison Court docket.
The entire technical points above are actual, however all of them can be overcome, and to shut the case, Offir needed to sidestep the medical report, which seems much more damning in opposition to the 5 troopers than the broadly mentioned video.
The 5 IDF troopers, broadly talking, don’t deny that they’d a bodily altercation with the detainee.
Principally, they declare self-defense and that they needed to get him below management.
However the medical report reveals seven of his ribs had been damaged and that an object was both shoved up his anus or that his buttocks was stabbed with an object.
These don’t seem to be actions in keeping with merely getting management over one detainee in self-defense.
Offir mentioned that the medical report was vital proof, however would have didn’t get a conviction at trial with out extra corroborating proof, particularly given the absence of the sufferer to testify.
The much-defamed video was not doctored. It, actually, appears to indicate IDF troopers beating the detainee. It’s simply that it was edited to shorten it from many hours of footage the place nothing occurred, to the moments when the extra crucial occasions occurred.
Nonetheless, Offir famous that most of the actions and alleged beatings had been set in a spot the place seeing who precisely did what was obscured within the footage.
Nonetheless, ignoring all the above proof may completely hurt his standing with the Israeli authorized neighborhood and would possibly make it more durable for him to handle the IDF authorized division, or the authorized neighborhood could also be so on its again heels proper now from quite a lot of different crises that it won’t have needed to spend power preventing on this challenge.
Up to now, Offir has obtained excessive marks from a bunch of IDF authorized officers who remained of their posts between his and Tomer-Yerushalmi’s tenures.
The ICC will doubtless reject Israeli explanations that it had taken the beating challenge significantly, however {that a} unusual collection of occasions, together with Tomer Yerushalmi’s private meltdown, had merely unwound the case on technical grounds.
However many Israeli authorized officers are extra uncertain at this stage about getting any truthful listening to earlier than the ICC.
