IDF chief pans right-wing Channel 14 for ‘malicious’ claims about army’s top lawyer

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir hit back at the right-wing Channel 14 station on Sunday evening after it claimed that a booby-trapped building in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis in which four troops were killed last week, had not been hit instead with an airstrike because of an order given by the Military Advocate General.

The soldiers, Sgt. Maj. (res.) Chen Gross, Staff Sgt. Yoav Raver, Sgt. First Class Tom Rotstein, and Staff Sgt. Uri Yhonatan Cohen, were killed on Friday upon entering a booby-trapped building in the Khan Younis suburb of Bani Suheila to clear it of possible terror infrastructure, including tunnels.

When the explosion was triggered, it caused the structure to collapse, killing the four troops and wounding five others.

After the incident, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said that sometimes there was “no choice” but to enter structures in the Strip to investigate them for possible tunnels.

Channel 14 claimed, however, that the IDF had sent troops into the building rather than targeting it in an airstrike because Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi had ostensibly changed army protocol to prohibit striking the structure as doing so would result in “high collateral damage.”

In an unusual move, Zamir issued a statement rejecting the “false, repeated, and baseless attacks regarding the conduct of the Military Advocate General” that he said was being spread by Channel 14.

“There was no directive from the Military Advocate General not to strike the building that collapsed and led to the deaths of four IDF soldiers in Khan Younis on Friday,” he said. “The claims made in this context are false, malicious, and entirely unfounded.”

He stressed that the “safety of IDF soldiers is a central consideration in all operations carried out in the Gaza Strip, and the forces on the ground have operational freedom to remove threats.”

“The chief of staff strongly condemns the defamation of IDF officers who work day and night for the security of the state and the protection of its citizens,” the statement added.

Rather than back down in the face of Zamir’s criticism, the conservative outlet doubled down on its claim. As of Monday morning, it had published four more articles on the matter, including a statement confirming that it stood by its reporting.

Accusing Zamir of misunderstanding the report, the outlet insisted that it had never claimed that the Military Advocate General issued a directive that directly led to the death of the four soldiers in Khan Younis.

“The article stressed that it was referring to incidents that occurred over the course of the war, and not a specific directive from last Friday,” it claimed.

“We regret that the IDF spokesman chose to act in such an out-of-touch manner,” it continued. “It would have been better if he had watched the item before dragging the chief of staff into issuing statements to the press.”

In a separate statement issued by Channel 14, the correspondent behind the piece fumed that a “reckless” Zamir had chosen to “attack” him rather than “substantively” address the claims laid out in the report.

He suggested that Zamir should instead “go to the bereaved families and tell them why their children were killed.”

Last month, Defense Minister Israel Katz forbade Tomer-Yerushalmi from participating in an  annual conference hosted by the Israel Bar Association, citing concerns that the event would be a platform for “polemical and political content.”

The IDF pushed back against the decision, saying Zamir had personally approved her attendance and stressing the value of the military publicly defending the legality of its war activities.

Last year, the IDF criticized Channel 14 for a clip the station broadcast that made fun of then-IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. The military accused the channel of “inflammatory and defamatory content that harms the IDF.”