Yair Golan: PM engages in 'nonstop incitement' to keep job

‘Someone will die’: Vandal smashes Channel 12 office doors again, leaves threatening note

Network's Tel Aviv entrance hit with two bricks, message demands apology for coverage of alleged abuse of Palestinian at Sde Teiman army base; outlet accuses government of incitement

By ToI Staff 28 July 2026, 2:11 pm
A masked assailant is caught on surveillance footage hurling a brick at the glass doors of Channel 12's offices in Tel Aviv, in the early hours of July 28, 2026. (Channel 12 via X)

A masked assailant smashed the glass door to Channel 12’s Tel Aviv offices overnight Monday-Tuesday, leaving a note demanding the station apologize for its coverage of alleged abuse of a Palestinian inmate at the Sde Teiman base, or else “someone will die.”

The incident was captured in surveillance footage, taken at 1:12 a.m.

It was the second such incident in less than a month.

The note, left beside one of the two brick used to shatter the glass, read: “So long as you don’t ask forgiveness for the Sde Teiman affair, I won’t stop.”

“Next time the brick will be directed at one of your heads,” the assailant threatened.

“An insincere apology is also okay,” the note said.

“Respond to this letter with respect and complete seriousness because in the end someone will die,” it said. “God’s judgment will be exacted from all of you.”

The Sde Teiman affair centered on the 2024 leak of surveillance footage allegedly showing the abuse of a Palestinian detainee by IDF soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility. The footage was leaked to Channel 12, causing further outrage both from those horrified by the apparent abuse and from others protesting the leak itself, claiming it created a false impression.

After several suspects were arrested by military police, hundreds of right-wing rioters, including several coalition MKs and a cabinet minister, broke into the Sde Teiman base in an apparent effort to halt the arrests, and right-wing activists then broke into a second military base where the suspects were being held and tussled with IDF soldiers there. No indictments were brought against any of those who broke into those bases.

The scandal escalated in late October 2025, when Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, then the military advocate general, was revealed to have leaked the footage of the alleged abuse to the media and then lied about it. She resigned from her post and is facing criminal charges.

Charges against the five reservists accused of abusing the Palestinian prisoner were eventually dropped.

The note also included a list of public figures whom the assailant dubbed “traitors from within, more dangerous than enemies from outside.”

They included Tomer-Yerushalmi, former Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, ex-IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, IDF Central Command chief Avi Bluth, and anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler and her husband, a Shin Bet agent who has featured in right-wing conspiracy theories.

It also listed former prime minister Ehud Barak and ex-Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, as well as Democrats party chief Yair Golan, the Supreme Court and its current president Isaac Amit, and others.

Channel 12: Government’s rhetoric leading to violence

In a statement, Channel 12 said: “The government and the communications minister must cease its inciting and unrestrained condemnations of the free media, which are leading to grave actions.”

“The police must act immediately to stop this dangerous violence ahead of time. We will not be deterred, whether by legislation, incitement, or violence,” the network continued.

President Isaac Herzog spoke with Police Commissioner Daniel Levy about the latest attack targeting Channel 12 and called for a zero-tolerance policy.

Police said they had opened an investigation into the attack, with Levy saying he viewed the incident with “great severity.”

The Union of Journalists in Israel condemned the attack, saying in a statement: “The fact that this is a recurring event isn’t incidental – it testifies to the severe deterioration of the attitude to journalists and media outlets in Israel.

“When you label journalists enemies, when you incite against media outlets and when you grant legitimacy to threats and fearmongering, the result is violence.

“Whoever shattered the doors of Channel 12 didn’t just damage property; they tried to shatter freedom of the press and the right of the public to receive reliable, critical and independent information,” the group said.

Former communications minister Yoaz Hendel, of the newly formed Zionist Home party, wrote: “Incitement against the media is dangerous, and especially so coming from ministers in the government.”

He pointed a finger at Shlomo Karhi, saying the Likud communications minister “views his role as the one who’s responsible for [the content of] broadcasts, and has allowed himself to lash out and incite against media outlets.”

During his tenure, Karhi has frequently assailed outlets critical of the government and pushed highly controversial media overhauls that would give the state more control over their reach.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi attends a vote at the plenum hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 16, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

‘Nonstop incitement’

The attack on Channel 12 was roundly condemned by opposition leaders, some of whom also blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

Together party leader Naftali Bennett said in a statement: “The press is a cornerstone of democracy, especially in an election period. The attempt to harm employees of news networks in Israel is a red line, and it is incumbent on the Israel Police to take care of it immediately, with the utmost seriousness.”

Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot accused the government of leading “a campaign of systematic and unrestrained incitement against the people and institutions of the media, labeling them enemies, and has taken up a thundering silence in the wake of its results on the ground. The silence grants legitimacy to continuing the violence.”

Democrats chairman Yair Golan went further, asserting in a statement that “in order to win the elections, Netanyahu must incite. That is always his methodology. To divide, to label enemies and to fearmonger. Only nonstop incitement against those who think differently – he believes – will allow him to hold on to power.

“So I’m sorry to say I was not surprised by the additional attack on the Channel 12 offices. When the leaders of the state incite against journalists, against the opposition, against reservist soldiers, and against citizens who protest for democracy, violence does not remain just words,” his statement said.

Yair Golan, chairman of The Democrats party, speaks during a party rally at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, July 25, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

There was no immediate comment on the incident from Netanyahu or senior members of his government.

MK Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionism party did condemn the attack, writing on X: “The violence and the threats against Channel 12 cross all red lines. I myself, who have fought from the very beginning against the plot against Sde Teiman, and who thinks Channel 12 is extremely slanted to the left, call on the government to do all it can to find the perpetrator.”

The right-wing organization Im Tirtzu also condemned the attack.

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