Honenu Attorneys Rom (L) and Keidar (R); Photo credit: Honenu
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 10:45 In July 2024, ten combat soldiers from IDF Unit 100 were detained at the Sde Teiman military base on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist prisoner who took part in the Simhat Torah massacre (October 7). The soldiers, who were guarding murderous Hamas terrorists, were called to conduct a body search on the Nukhba terrorist. The terrorist, who had served as a terrorist company commander in Jabalia, attacked the soldiers during the search. Recently, the Military Advocate General indicted five of the ten soldiers. Honenu Attorneys Adi Keidar, Nati Rom, and Moshe Poleski are representing two of the indicted soldiers.
Honenu Attorney Poleski; Photo credit: Honenu
The attorneys issued a statement: “The indictment is another low point in the history of the Military Advocate General, and it is no less than a badge of shame for the judicial system of the State of Israel as a whole. After a long and thorough hearing we succeeded in convincing the court that there is no evidence substantiating the sexual crimes of which the defendants were accused. The facts cited in the indictment bear no resemblance to the accusations that were raised at the beginning of the trial. The defendants were slandered with false charges of sex crimes and brutality. From the beginning, our opinion has been that indictment should not have been filed. A proper judicial system would have rejected this indictment. The investigation that led to it was tendentious, corrupted, and accompanied by leaks to the media that have not yet been explained. Moreover, a vile terrorist was enticed into filing a complaint against our heroic soldiers.
“Although there is a natural association between the military court and the military prosecution, for the sake of justice, the court should separate itself from the officials handling the prosecution, first and foremost, the Chief Military Advocate, Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi. The military court must independently and unequivocally rule that the defendants did not commit any crime and clear their names, which will at least partially restore their violated dignity.”
In July 2024, ten combat soldiers from Unit 100 were detained at the Sde Teiman military base on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist prisoner who took part in the Simhat Torah massacre (October 7). Five of the soldiers were released within a month. The remaining five soldiers were held in remand for over a month, and after their release were placed under nighttime house arrest. In September 2024 they were allowed to return to work, and in November 2024 they were released from nighttime house arrest.
In light of the media leak in the case, the Beit Lid Military Court of Appeals ruled that, “The Military Advocate General is required to promptly reply to the question of how investigative material reached the news media, in light of the claims of possible damage to the integrity of the investigation.”
Attorney Rom wrote a letter to the Attorney General demanding that she order an investigation into the leak and put those responsible for it on trial. The Attorney General replied that she had transferred the handling of the investigation to the IDF.
Following the last house arrest extension, the Honenu Attorneys Rom and Keidar requested to receive the investigative material in the case from the military prosecution.
Please click here for a description by the detained Sde Teiman soldiers of the incident.
Please click here for a statement from Hila, the wife of one of the soldiers detained at the Sde Teiman military base on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist, who leveled sharp criticism at the Military Advocate General over his detention.
On July 30, the court ignored the soldiers’ concerned families and held a hearing in their absence.
Initially, Honenu Attorneys Rom and Keidar were prevented on various pretexts from meeting with the detainees and granting them legal counsel.