Police believe that ex-Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. (res.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was found alive and well on Sunday evening after she went missing for many hours, staged her disappearance in order to “lose” her phone to destroy evidence, sources familiar with the investigation told Channel 12.

The sources explained that Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was found in sopping wet clothing and with her phone “missing,” actually brought two phones with her—one that she threw in the sea to deceive investigators and hide evidence, and another one that she used to be traced by search teams after an hour-long disappearance. After she was found, she claimed that her phone, which contained crucial evidence in the case, had “disappeared.” The last signal from Tomer-Yerushalmi’s phone was detected in the same area where her car had been found on the beach, after which it was turned off. The investigators believe that she deliberately disposed of it, possibly throwing it into the sea.

The sources added that the “goodbye” letter she left behind was not a typical suicide note.  “The wording is strange, vague, and full of hints. It doesn’t read like a note from someone in deep distress,” a source said.

The disgraced top IDF official failed to show up for a meeting with her lawyer on Sunday morning. Later, her daughter found a “goodbye” letter she had left at home and called the police at about 5 p.m. A large-scale search operation was launched, personally overseen by the Tel Aviv District Commander. Phone tracking led search forces to the Chof HaTzuk beach, where significant police and rescue forces were deployed. The IDF also assisted, deploying navy units, thermal drones, and additional search teams.

Accounts differ regarding how she was found, but it is clear that she contacted her husband using a phone that was not hers, which ultimately led to her being found, Ynet reported. It remains unclear to whom that phone belonged.

After she was found and examined by a doctor, she was immediately taken for questioning. Later that night, she was arrested and transferred to an isolated wing at Neve Tirza prison. On Monday morning, she was sent for a psychiatric evaluation at Abarbanel Hospital, where she was found fit for questioning. She was then brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, where the police requested to extend her arrest for five days. The judge agreed only to extend it for three days, until Wednesday at noon.

Former chief military prosecutor Col. (res.) Matan Solomesh, who was allegedly aware that Tomer-Yerushalmi was behind the leak of the video and failed to report it when an internal probe on the matter was launched, was arrested along with Tomer-Yerushalmi. He was also brought to court on Monday, and his arrest was extended for three days.

Additionally, police summoned and questioned seven other people in the case, including at least two other senior officers from the upper ranks of the military prosecution, and plan on questioning seven additonal suspects.

Earlier on Sunday, Haaretz reported that after the video she leaked was broadcast on Channel 12, Tomer-Yerushalmi wrote to a fellow IDF officer that it was a “good report” and that the decision to provide journalist Guy Peleg with the footage was the right one “because of the ratings.”

According to the same report, police have WhatsApp messages between Tomer-Yerushalmi and the junior officer suspected of leaking the footage to Channel 12. The messages show that Tomer-Yerushalmi instructed the officer to “contact [journalist] Guy Peleg” and send him the videos. The day after the broadcast, one of Tomer-Yerushalmi’s aides warned her in a private conversation, “This will backfire on us.”

Tomer-Yerushalmi is expected to be questioned in the coming days, along with all members of the WhatsApp group called “Assistants Group,” in which the decision to leak the Sde Teiman footage was discussed. The group included representatives of the military prosecution.

The leaked video caused immense damage to Israel, IDF soldiers, the hostages languishing in Gaza, who suffered brutal torture as a result of the leak, and, of course, the Unit 100 reservists, the suspects in the case. 

The five reservists, several of whom had voluntarily risked their lives to battle Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre, held a press conference on Sunday, during which their lawyers demanded that the case against them be dropped. The reservists suffered immensely from the fabricated video published on Channel 12 by a journalist who claimed that the footage showed them “raping a Nukhba terrorist.”  One got divorced, some lost parnassah and friends, and all of them grappled with feelings of despair and betrayal. Additionally, their lives were put at risk after videos of court hearings showing their identities were published in Arab media.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)