Khaberni - The Israeli police completed this Friday evening an examination to determine the identity of the mobile phone that was found this morning off the beaches of Herzliya, and linked it to the case of the resigned military prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.
The police concluded that the phone belongs to the resigned General Military Prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who was released this morning from detention in Neve Tirza prison, where she was held after admitting her involvement in a case of leaking a video showing reserve soldiers in the Israeli army brutally torturing a Palestinian prisoner.
According to the Hebrew newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth", investigators are currently working on downloading materials and data from the phone for the investigation.
Noa Eityal, an open-water swimmer who was swimming in the area, found a mobile phone this morning at the bottom of the sea in Herzliya. According to her, after exiting to the beach, "I pushed the right button and suddenly the screen displayed a person I recognize from the media as the military prosecutor." Eityal handed the phone over to the police, who began examining whether it indeed belongs to Tomer-Yerushalmi.
According to the newspaper, the police's cyber division carried out various operations following the discovery of the phone. With the help of data in their possession, such as the serial number, they tried to determine when the phone was purchased, in whose name, and then checked which cellular towers it connected to and at what times, and when it was turned off and on. A source in the police described the circumstances of the find as "strange".
The former military prosecutor was released this morning to house arrest, and was photographed for the first time since the case erupted as she left Neve Tirza prison. She walked briskly and refused to answer questions posed to her as she left the detention facility.
Estimates in Israel suggest that the Tomer-Yerushalmi phone contains dangerous correspondences and evidence that may topple big heads within the military establishment, reflecting an "official terror" among Israeli officials about the implications of the case.
The investigations indicate that Tomer-Yerushalmi may have played a central role in leaking videos showing brutal assaults by reserve soldiers on a Palestinian prisoner, and that this was done through a WhatsApp group that includes senior officers of the military prosecution. She and others are also accused of drafting misleading statements to cover up the incident and obstruct the judicial investigation.
