Man arrested on suspicion of smashing Channel 12 office entrance, leaving death threat

A Ramat Gan man in his 40s was arrested Thursday on suspicion of smashing the glass door of Channel 12’s Tel Aviv offices on Tuesday and leaving a death threat that demanded the network apologize for its reporting on alleged abuse of Palestinian inmates, according to police.

Haaretz reported that the man was also suspected of similarly shattering the entrance to the newspaper’s own Tel Aviv offices early on July 8.

Channel 12 said police were investigating whether the suspect was involved in other instances of vandalism over the past month targeting outlets that are frequently critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including an earlier shattering of the Channel 12 offices’ door on July 5.

According to Channel 12, the man had already been arrested once for allegedly spraypainting the message “the blood of the soldiers will be cleared for publication” outside the Tel Aviv offices of Channel 13 in November.

The suspect has also been arrested on suspicion of daubing the messages “only God” on the outer wall of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv some three years ago, and “tabernacle of deceit, evil, immorality, harlotry and adultery” on the city’s magistrate court in February, Channel 12 said.

The suspect is accused in a separate case of having pepper-sprayed a secretary and a receptionist at a Bnei Brak law firm amid a debt collection procedure, the network reported.

Police said officers located the suspect with help from the Shin Bet internal security service.

Security camera footage from the vandalism at Channel 12’s offices this week showed a masked assailant hurling a stone at the door shortly past 1 a.m.

משליך לבנים ונמלט: תיעוד ניפוץ דלת הכניסה לבניין חדשות 12 בתל אביבhttps://t.co/9ICturRoei | @Noam92Cohen pic.twitter.com/EAcdCktmrh

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) July 28, 2026

A note left behind threatened that “next time the brick will be aimed at one of your heads” and “someone will die” if the network wouldn’t “ask forgiveness for the Sde Teiman affair.”

Footage leaked to Channel 12 in the summer of 2024 by then-Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi purported to show guards at the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention facility perpetrating severe sexual abuse against a Palestinian inmate. Right-wing politicians cast the airing of the footage as a blood libel against Israeli troops.

Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned in October 2025 after admitting to having leaked the footage and lied about it. She leaked the footage after a right-wing mob stormed the base to protest the arrest of reservists accused of the abuse. The case against the reservists was later dropped — not due to the lack of evidence against the suspect but because of its leak to the public.