The Facebook photos of former IDF Sergeant Eden Abergil's army days drew an inevitable, though ridiculous, comparison this week with the depraved scenes of sexual abuse and torture carried out by American soldiers in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

But in many ways, the images of Abergil posing, smiling, with arrested Palestinian civilians bound and blindfolded in the close background, poses a more difficult and complex moral challenge for the IDF's commanders.

A Palestinian man has broken into the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and is threatening to kill any Jew who enters the building.

It is believed two people are being held hostage inside the embassy on Hayarkon Street by Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from Ramallah. One person, thought to be Injaz, has been shot and injured.

Israel Radio said that rescue workers attempted to enter the building but did not bring anyone out.

Injaz was arrested in 2006 after an eight-hour standoff at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, during which he wielded a plastic gun. Nobody was injured in that incident.

The Israeli army has condemned a former soldier who posted photographs of herself with a blindfolded Palestinian on Facebook.

Eden Abergil has claimed she does not understand what she did wrong, but an IDF spokesman called her behaviour “base and crude”.

The spokesman added: "These actions are ugly and callous; details of the incident have been forwarded up the chain of command."

Israeli human rights organisations have also criticised Ms Abergil’s actions.

Gap year students usually spend their 12-month sabbatical between school and university helping the underprivileged or exploring the world. Most never consider another option - joining the IDF.

"The Israeli army has never recruited outside Israel," said Jay Shultz, co-founder of a new organisation, JoinTheIDF.com, which helps diaspora Jews join the Israeli army or the Israeli civil service for a fee of £1,800.

Israeli police are investigating after a plan to undermine IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, and ensure OC Southern Command Major General Yoav Galant replaced him, was unveiled on Channel Two news on Friday night.

The "Galant Document" caused a public uproar and deep embarrassment in the IDF's upper echelons. Lt-Gen Ashkenazi ends his term in February 2011 and the question of his successor has been the subject of intense speculation and rivalry.

Israel’s chief of staff has told a panel investigating the Mavi Marmara operation that his soldiers behaved in a "proportionate and correct" way.

Appearing before the inquiry, which is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Jacob Turkel, Gabi Ashkenazi said that the circumstances on board the Gaza-bound flotilla had been “unprecedented”. But he added that the commandos had “exhibited calm, bravery and morality.”