JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Three soldiers from the IDF’s Force 100 unit, which was tasked with guarding and supervising captured terrorists, have filed an NIS 18 million civil lawsuit against a long list of senior officials and institutions involved in the Sde Teiman affair, escalating their legal battle over their arrests, prosecution and the leak of investigative materials.
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The lawsuit, filed Monday in the Jerusalem District Court with the assistance of the Honenu legal organization, names 17 defendants, including former Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Isman, the IDF, Military Police investigators, Israel Police, the State of Israel, military prosecution officials, Channel 12 journalist Guy Peleg and the Israeli News Company.
The soldiers are seeking compensation for what they describe as a series of serious wrongs, including false accusations, wrongful arrest, invasion of privacy, defamation, an unlawful indictment and the alleged cover-up of an investigation into the leak of classified investigative material.
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Menashe Yado of Honenu and attorneys Dr. Eitan Meron and Elhanan Meron of the Meron, Fribes, Ben-Zion law firm.
According to the plaintiffs, the affair began with what they characterize as false suspicions against them, followed by a highly publicized arrest, the publication of investigative materials and ultimately criminal proceedings that continued for more than a year.
The soldiers claim that authorities failed for months to launch an effective criminal investigation into the leak of materials from the case. They further allege that a subsequent internal review was structured in a way that could not fully establish how the material had reached the media.
The lawsuit also alleges that senior officials in the prosecution and law-enforcement systems shielded those responsible for the leak and presented misleading information to the Supreme Court concerning the leak and the extent to which investigative materials had been exposed.
The plaintiffs claim that the failure to properly investigate the leak compounded the harm caused to them and resulted in what they describe as prolonged “denial of justice,” beginning with the leak on August 6, 2024, and continuing until the indictment was ultimately canceled in March 2026.
The allegations have not been adjudicated, and the defendants will have an opportunity to respond in court.
The lawsuit also challenges the criminal proceedings brought against the soldiers.
Five Force 100 reservists were accused in connection with an alleged assault of a Hamas detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in July 2024. The case became one of the most politically and legally charged episodes of the war, after military investigators arrested soldiers from the unit and the arrest itself triggered protests and a confrontation at the facility. An indictment was subsequently filed against the soldiers.
The plaintiffs argue that the proceedings were fundamentally compromised by the handling of the leaked investigation materials and by what they describe as a conflict of interest involving officials who were involved in both the prosecution of the soldiers and the response to the leak.
The case eventually took a dramatic turn in March 2026, when the current Military Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Itai Ofir, ordered the indictment canceled following a renewed review of the case.
According to reporting on Ofir’s decision, the cancellation was based on a combination of evidentiary and procedural difficulties, including problems concerning the evidence in the case, the inability to secure testimony from the detainee, and what the military prosecution described as concerns regarding the defendants’ right to a fair trial and the doctrine of “defense of justice.”
The plaintiffs now argue that the cancellation of the indictment following the renewed hearing provides significant support for their claim that the original proceedings were flawed. They contend that, had the alleged misconduct and irregularities not occurred, the criminal proceedings could either have been avoided altogether or brought to an end much earlier.
The lawsuit breaks the claimed damages into numerous categories. Among the amounts listed are:
- NIS 1.5 million for allegedly being falsely suspected of a serious sexual offense;
- NIS 450,000 for what the soldiers describe as 15 days of wrongful detention;
- NIS 3 million for alleged defamation;
- NIS 1 million for what they characterize as an unlawful indictment
- NIS 500,000 over the alleged obstruction or cover-up of the leak investigation.
Additional damages are claimed under other categories, bringing the total demand to NIS 18 million.
The lawsuit follows an earlier civil proceeding filed in connection with the publication of the Sde Teiman material against Channel 12 journalist Guy Peleg and the Israeli News Company. Because the new lawsuit seeks a substantially larger amount and raises broader allegations against state and law-enforcement officials, it has been filed in the District Court.
Honenu attorney Menashe Yado, who represents the soldiers, described the lawsuit as an unusually complex legal battle involving senior figures from Israel’s law-enforcement system as well as one of the country’s largest news organizations.
“This is a complex lawsuit against powerful figures, including the former command echelon of the military prosecution and Channel 12, the most powerful media organization in Israel,” Yado said.
He accused the defendants of having “joined together” in harming the soldiers and criticized senior law-enforcement officials whom he said protected the former military prosecution leadership because of institutional and ideological ties.
The lawsuit, he said, concerns not only the soldiers’ treatment but “the rule of law and the equality of the individual before the law-enforcement system.”
whos values does the IDF follow?