Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that the leak of a video allegedly showing the abuse of a Palestinian prisoner by IDF soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility was the “most serious public-relations attack” against Israel to date.

As the scandal continued to rock the IDF and Israel, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sparred Sunday over whether the latter has the authority to investigate the incident, while several of the suspected soldiers asserted that their names should be cleared.

The August 2024 leak “caused enormous reputational damage to Israel, to the IDF, and to our soldiers,” the premier said at the start of the cabinet meeting, as he called for an “impartial inquiry.”

“It is perhaps the most serious public relations attack Israel has experienced since its founding — I cannot recall one so concentrated and intense,” Netanyahu said. “This requires an independent and impartial inquiry, and I expect that such an investigation will indeed take place.”

On Friday, military advocate general Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi admitted to approving the leak of the video and resigned from her position.

The leak followed the arrest of 10 IDF reservists suspected of involvement in the abuse, which triggered riots by right-wing activists and demonstrators — including serving coalition ministers and MKs — at the base and at the military court where the suspects were taken.

Five soldiers were indicted in February for abusing the Palestinian security prisoner after he was brought to the detention facility in July 2024. The assault left him with severe injuries, including broken ribs and a tear in his rectum.

Multiple right-wing ministers and MKs have claimed the leak of the footage from security cameras at the Sde Teiman base constituted a blood libel against falsely accused soldiers, despite the indictments.

AG, Levin clash on probe authority

Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday rejected Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s declaration that she was legally barred from overseeing the investigation into the leak by the IDF Military Advocate General’s office, in the latest clash between the two top legal officials.

In a statement, Baharav-Miara said the justice minister had no authority to make such a determination.

Baharav-Miara further maintained that Levin was not authorized to appoint another official to oversee the investigation, which he said he would do, nor to block officials in the Attorney General’s Office from handling the case.

His attempt to do so, she said, “lacks any basis, factual or legal” and his letter “constitutes an effort to unlawfully interfere with investigative and enforcement processes.”

She said the investigation would continue under the leadership of the state’s top law enforcement officials, including herself, State Attorney Amit Aisman, and the head of the Israel Police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division.

Levin responded Sunday by saying that he “totally rejects” Baharav-Miara’s claim that he has no authority to exclude her.

Writing to Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, who authored the letter to Levin on behalf of the attorney general, the justice minister said the public “no longer accepts your custom of having one law for yourselves and another law for everyone else.”

It appeared likely that government watchdog groups would file petitions to the High Court of Justice asking it to rule on whether Levin can sideline Baharav-Miara.

In a sharply worded letter to Baharav-Miara on Saturday night, Levin implicitly accused the attorney general and her staff of attempting to obstruct the investigation into the source of the leak. He argued that Baharav-Miara was therefore legally disqualified from involvement in the case under the 1959 Law for the Civil Service.

Levin further accused the attorney general of acting in lockstep with Tomer-Yerushalmi and implied she had long known of the leak, though he provided no evidence for the claim. The justice minister has refused to refer to Baharav-Miara as the attorney general since the government formally fired her in August, despite the High Court’s order freezing her dismissal.

Indicted soldiers demand fair trial

One of the five soldiers who was charged with abusing the Palestinian detainee in the video accused the military justice system on Sunday of carrying out an unfair “drumhead court martial” against himself and his fellow defendants, while speaking to journalists at a press conference outside the Supreme Court.

Also appearing at the press conference organized by the Honenu right-wing legal aid organization, attorney Moshe Polsky, who represents two of the defendants, claimed that the suspects cannot have a fair trial due to the leak by Tomer-Yerushalmi, saying “the wheel cannot be turned back” and that the indictment process was tainted.

Speaking to reporters, one of the defendants — all of whom appeared at the press conference wearing ski masks to avoid identification — said that “on October 7, we left unquestioningly our families, children, parents. We knew we had to defend the country. Since that day, dozens of fighters are still fighting for justice not on the battlefield but in courtrooms.”

The suspect added: “Dozens of fighters who need the backing of the country and the system, because they defended our home, and we are here only in their merit.”

Also appearing at the press conference, the wife of one of the defendants said that the country “spat in the face” of her husband by putting him on trial and “broke my heart,” saying her husband had “collapsed from the inside, not on the battlefield but because of the country.”

Though the legal aid group asserted last week that all the charges against their clients should be dropped, Honenu has yet to file an official request for the indictments to be annulled.