A Hamas terrorist at the heart of criminal proceedings against five Israel Defense Forces reservists accused of abusing Palestinian inmates has reportedly been deported back to Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal.
Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported on Monday afternoon that the alleged victim was released from jail under the U.S.-brokered deal that saw the remaining 20 living hostages freed by Hamas on Oct. 13.
“We have just received the notice that the terrorist is no longer held in an Israeli prison. We therefore call upon the IDF Military Prosecutor’s Office to immediately cancel the indictment,” attorneys for several of the suspects said in a statement cited by Israel National News on Monday.
“From day one, we told the military court that if the terrorist would be brought to testify, the case would collapse,” the defense team said. “It is time to release the soldiers from the heavy burden that has weighed on their shoulders and allow them to return to anonymity and normal life.”
In July 2024, IDF Military Police arrested nine IDF soldiers as part of the probe into an incident of alleged abuse of terrorists imprisoned at the Sde Teiman makeshift detention center, located in the Negev Desert.
“Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held in the prison facility, an investigation by the Military Police was opened by order of the Military Advocate General’s Office,” the IDF said at the time.
In August 2024, a medical opinion submitted to the court suggested the soldiers could be innocent. Professor Alon Pikarsky, director of general surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Medical Center, said the terrorist had possibly injured himself by inserting a foreign body.
During the probe, security camera footage allegedly documenting an assault on the terrorist was leaked to Israel’s Channel 12 News outlet.
Last week, Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted to the leak, claiming that she had done so to “fend off false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.”
The criminal probe into the incident and the subsequent arrest of the reservists sparked outrage among right-wing Israelis and lawmakers.
Tomer-Yerushalmi has since resigned and was arrested on Sunday after going missing for several hours. Her phone remains missing, and law enforcement authorities are reportedly probing the possibility that Tomer-Yerushalmi faked a suicide attempt to dispose of the device.
Lawyers for several defendants had already demanded that the charges be dropped in the wake of Tomer-Yerushalmi’s confession last week.
“The necessary step now is to cancel the indictment. It’s the least the system can do,” said attorney Adi Keidar of the Honenu legal-aid group.
“It’s clear that the damage caused to the defendants will accompany them for many years, but such a decision would allow them to turn a new page and restore, at least in part, their good name,” Keidar added.
