Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, April 27, 2025, 20:15 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). An investigation was launched by the Military Criminal Investigation Division, and the case was placed under a gag order. The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation violated the gag order by not blurring the soldiers’ faces in a Channel 13 report. In addition, video clips and investigative material were leaked from the IDF to Guy Peleg, a journalist with Channel 12, who later aired a report in which he claimed that the soldiers sodomized the Nukhba terrorist.
In late 2024, Honenu Attorneys Menashe Yado and Nati Rom filed an NIS 600,000 civil suit at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court for violation of privacy against the IDF and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation on behalf of two of the soldiers who were detained and whose faces were revealed in a leaked recording. On Sunday (April 27), Honenu Attorneys Menashe Yado and Nati Rom filed an amended statement of claim with the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, adding Guy Peleg and Channel 12 as defendants in the suit, and raising the requested sum to NIS two million.
In the statement of claim, the attorneys underscored the immense damage to the image of the IDF and to the State of Israel that Peleg caused by airing the report: “Guy Peleg’s commentary during the report deceived viewers into erroneously believing that the evidence in the case is based on proof that the soldiers had sodomized a Nukhba terrorist. All major media networks in the world deduced from the report that the documentation presented indicated that soldiers had sexually assaulted a Palestinian prisoner. The report greatly damaged the image and security interests of the State of Israel, of Israelis, of Jews in the diaspora, and in all probability, of the Jews still held hostage by terrorists [in the Gaza Strip].”
The suit goes on to claim that, “The report greatly harmed the soldiers and their families on many levels. Upon receiving the investigative material, it became apparent that the evidence Peleg had presented in the video clip claiming that soldiers had sexually assaulted an imprisoned Palestinian had been fabricated. Peleg presented tendentious and misleading commentary, and with unfounded and false statements, mislead viewers to believe that the investigative case was based on unequivocal evidence proving the accusation of sodomy. The conclusion arising from Peleg’s commentary in the report is not based on evidence but rather on lies, baseless statements, and a biased, deceptive interpretation of the content of the video clip.”
Attorneys Yado and Rom leveled harsh criticism at the IDF for their part in leaking the video clip to Peleg and subsequently not investigating the leak: “The fact that various pieces of evidence were gathered by different authorities indicates that it was not one of those authorities that leaked the information, but rather the authority that compiled the investigative material. That is to say, an integrating authority, not a secondary authority. The report sends a message supporting the accusations that the Military Advocate General presented. This also supports the conclusion that the material was deliberately leaked. After the report was publicized, the investigating authorities did not issue a clarification that the statements in the report were false. This failure to clarify indicates that the investigating authorities were agreeable to the publication of the lies. This silence constitutes approval of the report.”
The attorneys continued: “The defendant did not use legal channels, but rather leaked video clips to the media, to the detriment of their own soldiers. There is no doubt that at the time of the leak, legal justification for such a harmful and dangerous act as publicizing the video could not have been given. It is not for nothing that none of the authorities responsible for the leak have publicly admitted their involvement. The investigative material was publicized during the investigation, while hearings on the soldiers’ remand were being held, before their attorneys were presented with it, which violated the integrity of the criminal proceedings and risked corrupting the investigation. It was an extreme and blatant departure from the accepted norms of maintaining the confidentiality of investigative material while an investigation is ongoing.”
Additionally, the attorneys revealed that the IDF was in possession of medical evidence that indicated that the crimes of which Peleg accused the soldiers had not been committed on the Nukhba terrorist. However, the IDF abandoned the soldiers instead of refuting Peleg’s false claims: “The medical information recorded at the military clinic when the prisoner was completely under the care of the army refutes the possibility that the injury was the result of sodomy. The information was available already on July 8, 2024. However, the Military Advocate General asked the medical authorities only on July 31, 2024 if the medical evidence rules out the possibility that sodomy had been committed, two days after the soldiers were detained. On August 24, 2024, three weeks after the detention a doctor drew a diagram for the investigative file that rules out the possibility that the injury was caused by sodomy. This was the final evidence that refuted the accusation of sodomy. This factual, technical clarification should have been done during the examination before the detention. It would have spared the soldiers and the State of Israel all of the debasement, damage, and humiliation that they underwent.”
Attorney Yado stated that Honenu would demand that Peleg appear before the court: “Guy Peleg’s report harmed the claimants and harmed the State of Israel. We intend to summon Guy Peleg to court to deconstruct the report into segments and refute all of his claims, one by one.”
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.