Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Phone found at Tel Aviv beach belongs to arrested former top IDF lawyer: TV

Ex-Military Advocate General Tomer-Yerushalmi released to house arrest.

Former IDF Military Advocate Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi leaves the Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramla for house arrest on Nov. 7, 2025. Credit: Flash90.
Former IDF Military Advocate Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi leaves the Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramla for house arrest on Nov. 7, 2025. Credit: Flash90.

A cell phone found Friday on a Tel Aviv beach belongs to Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who is under house arrest in a high-profile leak investigation, Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported.

Former Military Advocate General Tomer-Yerushalmi is suspected of throwing her phone into the Mediterranean to obstruct the investigation.

The latest development in the soap-opera like saga follows last week’s admission by the top military lawyer that she approved the leak of a surveillance video at the center of a politically divisive investigation into allegations of Israeli abuse of a Hamas terrorist who was held at the Sde Teiman military prison. The terrorist has since been released and sent back to Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Tomer-Yerushalmi, who had lied under oath about the leak to the Supreme Court, resigned from her position last week and then briefly disappeared at north Tel Aviv’s Tzuf (Cliff) Beach, prompting a frantic manhunt amid concerns for her safety. She was later found sound and well.

Earlier on Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi was released to 10 days of house arrest and forbidden from contacting others involved in the case.

See more from JNS Staff
“In many of the countries that have Holocaust envoys or antisemitism envoys, you have to empower them to be able to do something to be effective,” the U.S. special envoy on Jew-hatred told reporters. “You can’t neuter them.”
“In one hour, on Oct. 7, I saw more casualties than I saw for five years,” Guy M. told JNS.
The Israeli premier praised Smit Machchhar during a call after the wounded aviator helped passengers and crew foil a violent midair hijacking.
Israel’s Tax Authority confirmed it had received a list of foreign flight crews, but only checked them for criminal status.