The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said on Tuesday evening that Katz announced the appointment of lawyer Itai Ofir as the new military prosecutor, succeeding Yerushalmi, who was stripped of her rank last Saturday, despite having submitted her resignation a day earlier.
The agency explained that Ofir, one of the candidates recommended by Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, learned of his appointment through the media, without being notified in advance.
In a statement via the X platform, the occupation army said: "The Chief of Staff congratulates Attorney Itai Ofir on his election as Military Advocate General, as he was the leading candidate for this position."
The statement added that "the Chief of Staff sees utmost importance in the next military prosecutor being from the ranks of combat officers who possess legal experience and an understanding of the challenges of combat and the law," noting that the new appointment aims to "quickly stabilize the military prosecution to protect IDF soldiers."
The case dates back to July 2024, when five soldiers from the occupation army tortured and sexually assaulted a Palestinian prisoner inside the “Sde Teiman” detention center, causing him severe injuries and a tear in his rectum.
The scandal erupted again after Tomer Yerushalmi leaked the video to the media, stating in her resignation letter that she "authorized the release of the material to refute false propaganda against the army's law enforcement agencies." Israeli police arrested Yerushalmi on Monday, and her detention was extended for three days pending an investigation into the leak.
Hebrew media outlets, including the official broadcasting authority, claimed that the Palestinian prisoner who was tortured was released on October 13 to the Gaza Strip as part of an exchange deal with Hamas, without any comment from the movement or from the Palestinian institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs regarding this.
More than 10,000 Palestinians, including children and women, are languishing in Israeli prisons, suffering torture, starvation, and medical neglect that has claimed the lives of many detainees, according to Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations.
Attacks against Palestinian detainees have increased, in parallel with a genocidal war waged by Israel with American support on the Gaza Strip for two years since October 8, 2023, which left more than 68,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women.
