Haaretz 12. mars 2026:
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"IDF Drops Indictment Against Troops Charged With Abusing a Palestinian Detainee From Gaza"
"Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that 'justice has been done' and labeling the case a 'blood libel.' Katz added that the IDF legal system's role is to 'defend and protect soldiers who are bravely fighting monsters in war'"
"The Israeli army's senior legal adviser announced Thursday that he has ordered the dismissal of charges against IDF reservists accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
Military Advocate General Itay Offir cited several reasons for his decision, claiming abuse of process due to "the conduct of senior officials in the Military Advocate General's Corps and the IDF's law enforcement system in this case, and its exceptional and unprecedented circumstances."
"Spesiell sak, og ikke nok bevis".
Til tross for at der var videoopptak og lege-erklæringer.
Skudeneshavn 12. mars 2026
Jan Marton Jensen
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IDF Drops Indictment Against Troops Charged With Abusing a Palestinian Detainee From Gaza
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that 'justice has been done' and labeling the case a 'blood libel.' Katz added that the IDF legal system's role is to 'defend and protect soldiers who are bravely fighting monsters in war'
The Israeli army's senior legal adviser announced Thursday that he has ordered the dismissal of charges against IDF reservists accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
Military Advocate General Itay Offir cited several reasons for his decision, claiming abuse of process due to "the conduct of senior officials in the Military Advocate General's Corps and the IDF's law enforcement system in this case, and its exceptional and unprecedented circumstances."
In February last year, five IDF reservists were charged with aggravated abuse and causing severe bodily injury to a Palestinian detainee.
According to the indictment, the five beat the detainee, dragged him along the floor, stepped on his body, and shocked him with a taser. The alleged assault resulted in broken ribs and a punctured lung. The charges also state that one of the soldiers stabbed the detainee in the buttocks, causing rectal injury.
The Sde Teiman detention facility is an IDF base in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, the Israeli military has used the base as a temporary detention and interrogation facility for Palestinians captured in Gaza, particularly suspected militants.
In his Thursday decision, the adviser also justified his decision by citing "complexities regarding the existing evidentiary basis" and the release of the security detainee to the Gaza Strip, which raises evidentiary difficulties.
Offir also noted a "procedural difficulty regarding the transfer of relevant investigative materials from a case being handled by the Israel Police, in a way that harms the defendants' right to a fair trial."
The Israeli military also issued a statement, citing "significant developments that have occurred since the filing of the indictment ... and exceptional circumstances that negatively affected the ability to prosecute the case."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision, saying that "the blood libel ... which slandered Israel in the world in an unprecedented way, has come to an end."
He continued, saying the case was "criminal" in itself, adding it is "unacceptable that it took so long" to close it. "The State of Israel must persecute its enemies, not its heroic fighters," Netanyahu said.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz also praised the IDF dropping the charges, saying in a statement that "justice has been done" and labeling the case a "blood libel."
"This trial was born in sin under the previous IDF top lawyer, through what I see as a blood libel against IDF soldiers and the use of abusive investigative methods," he wrote. "I am glad that justice has now been done and the trial has been canceled."
Katz added, "The role of the IDF's legal system is to defend and protect soldiers who are bravely fighting monsters in war – not the rights of Nukhba terrorists," referring to Hamas' elite militants.
According to the military advocate general, footage of the incident "does not present an unequivocal picture of the charges attributed to the defendants," since "the vast majority of the defendants' actions are obscured by shields."
He wrote that "the video alone – certainly when combined with the defense's arguments – does not clearly and incontrovertibly show acts of severe violence at the level required for a criminal conviction, as distinct from the use of force against resistance during a search."
The military advocate general added in his decision that the charges "might have been reinforced by the detainee's testimony." Israel released the detainee to the Gaza Strip in October 2025 as part of the cease-fire and hostage release deal, along with roughly 1,700 other Gazans.
"This new circumstance fundamentally alters the evidentiary basis and makes it difficult to prove significant parts of the indictment," Offir wrote.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and officials from the Justice Ministry and the State Attorney's Office were not involved in the decision to release the detainee to Gaza, despite the potential damage to the case.
A security source said that those who approved the list of detainees slated for release were the government, which received the list in advance, and the Shin Bet security service, which reviewed and approved it.
In a statement released Thursday, the IDF said that Offir dropped the charges due to "extremely exceptional and unprecedented circumstances due to conduct by certain senior officials" in the Military Advocate General's Office.
The Israeli military also said that the unit's "core mission ... is to enforce the law and [hold] accountable those who violate it," adding that the unit "will continue to pursue this mission professionally and independently."
Last October, the IDF announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into the leak of the video showing the assault on a detainee to Channel 12.
Two days after the investigation began, the then-military attorney general, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, resigned, admitting that she had approved the leak. In her resignation letter to Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, she explained that she had sought "to fend off false propaganda against law enforcement bodies in the military."
The current military attorney noted, in reference to the right to a fair trial, a recent interview given by an investigator in the case to Kan 11. "During the program, a senior investigator on the investigative team spoke directly, in detail and explicitly, about evidence collected as part of the investigation. The public dissemination of this evidence, while the proceedings against the defendants are still ongoing, fundamentally undermines the defendants' right to a fair trial," he wrote in his decision.
Coalition members welcomed the military attorney's ruling. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called it an "important decision by Military Advocate General Itay Ophir," adding: "Now it remains only to ensure that the ousted MAG stands trial."
Culture Minister Miki Zohar said that the "blood libel against IDF soldiers was revealed to be nothing at all," while Economy Minister Nir Barkat noted that a fund he established would assist the guards accused in a defamation suit against Channel 12.
Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee Tzvi Sukkot shared a photo of himself during the Sde Teiman base raid in July 2024, following the arrest of the guards, writing: "Glad I was on the right side of history from the very first moment."
