Police contain protesters at the home of the IDF military police chief

Sam Sokol and Emanuel Fabian – Times of Israel April 28, 2026

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators belonging to the extremist Jerusalem Faction protested across the country on Tuesday, breaching the home of the head of the IDF’s Military Police in Ashkelon and blocking Route 4 near the central city of Bnei Brak in protest of the arrest of yeshiva students who have evaded military conscription.

The military said the extremists broke into Military Police commander Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin’s home “while his family was inside.” Yamin himself was not at home at the time. Police said in a statement that the rioters “trespassed into the yard, acted violently, and disrupted the routine of life in the area.”

Police later announced that 25 suspects, among them minors, were arrested.

Senior officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the ultra-Orthodox extremists.

“I strongly condemn the unbridled and violent attack against the chief Military Police officer and demand that firm action be taken against those involved,” Netanyahu said in a terse statement.

Katz similarly said he “strongly” condemned the incident, calling the extremists “a group of violent criminals who must be brought to justice with the full severity of the law.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir “strongly condemn[ed] the attack,” saying in a statement that “harm to security personnel and their families constitutes the crossing of a dangerous red line.”

“This is a grave incident, and decisive action is required by all law enforcement and security authorities to bring those involved to justice,” Zamir added.

Responding to the condemnations, the Jerusalem Faction said: “Red lines have been crossed; leave the Torah students alone.”

‘We will die and not enlist’

“We prefer to die as Haredim rather than live as IDF soldiers,” one demonstrator screamed on the highway near Bnei Brak. Photos from the scene showed burning Israeli flags and a fake tombstone emblazoned with the slogan “We will die and not enlist,” a common refrain at such demonstrations.

In a statement, the Israel Police said that while it considered “the right to protest to be a cornerstone of a democratic state,” it would not “allow any kind of disorder or violation of freedom of movement, or any behavior that may endanger public safety.”

Police reported that officers removed rioters disrupting traffic in three other locations, including Jerusalem’s Tsahal Square and Route 38 in Beit Shemesh.

In a statement, the Jerusalem Faction declared that the arrest of yeshiva student Nehorai Bachar “from within the walls of the yeshiva in Herzliya” and his incarceration in military prison crossed a “red line” and that the faction’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Azriel Auerbach, has “instructed the public to take part in a mass ‘protest of rage’ Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the entrance to Jerusalem.”

“Anyone who does not go out to protest the arrest of a yeshiva student from within the study hall takes part in the persecution of those who learn Torah,” the rabbi said. “It is an absolute obligation for every person who values the Torah and the Name of Heaven to protest its degradation and desecration.”

An extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, the Jerusalem Faction regularly demonstrates raucously against the military enlistment of yeshiva students. It operates a hotline to mobilize protesters against the arrest of draft dodgers and has been involved in paying evaders financial rewards.

Attacking soldiers

Over the past day, meanwhile, police arrested three members of the Breslov Hasidic sect on suspicion of assault over an attack on ultra-Orthodox soldier Yosef Rozenberger, a member of the IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade, at his home in Beit Shemesh on Saturday night.

The attackers yelled, “We’ll burn down your house with the kids inside,” Channel 13 reported.

“The Israel Police will continue to act decisively against perpetrators of violence and anyone who chooses to disrupt public order and harm public security,” the police said in a statement.

The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — mostly combat troops — due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the IDF’s recent conflicts. Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted.

The military has sent out tens of thousands of enlistment orders to previously exempt Haredim since 2024, when the High Court of Justice ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal — leading to a growing number of ultra-Orthodox men being declared draft dodgers.

Increasing enforcement

The court ordered the government on Sunday to adopt a raft of measures that would punish ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers by denying them various welfare benefits unless they enlist for military service.

The court also ordered the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against Haredi draft dodgers, calling the police’s failure to arrest such people “unacceptable” and describing the situation as a “knowing and ongoing mass violation of the law.”

Police have been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, IDF officials claimed during a meeting held by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in late March.

Netanyahu’s coalition has been working for the past two years to advance a controversial bill exempting yeshiva students from military service

The bill, which critics including senior IDF officers and the attorney general argue will not significantly increase enlistment, was taken off the table with the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. However, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announced at the end of March that he will continue advance it and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has predicted that it will pass in the summer after the parliamentary recess, which ends May 10.

Despite this, there has been no forward motion on the legislation due to opposition by Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the Degel HaTorah party’s two senior rabbinic leaders.

On Monday evening, Channel 12 reported that Hirsch has refused even to meet with his party’s lawmakers to discuss the issue.

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