10 cops injured during Haredi riots in Jerusalem; police use tear gas on protesters, arrest 4

Haredi protesters have injured 10 police officers in ongoing riots in Jerusalem, which, according to police, were sparked by parking tickets issued to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in the capital.

Some of the injured officers were evacuated from the scene for medical treatment after protesters threw stones and other objects at forces and overturned a police vehicle. Police have arrested four people involved so far.

The commotion reportedly broke out after municipal inspectors issued parking tickets to several yeshiva students, and quickly realized that they were draft dodgers. When police tried to hand over the students to the Military Police, they were met with resistance from bystanders, which mushroomed into rioting, Ynet reports.

Police are using stun grenades and tear gas on demonstrators, a move rarely taken against Israelis, as the rioting draws widespread condemnation from lawmakers as well as police chief Danny Levy.

Levy calls the rioting a “very grave incident” and vows that police will “hold everyone involved to account.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, says that he “unequivocally condemns the extremist rioting in Jerusalem,” and calls the attacks on police officers a “red line.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls the rioting an “inconceivable failure of the government,” which signals the “disintegration of government institutions.”

“It cannot be that the Haredi evaders avoid arrest just because they are engaging in violence. The defense minister and prime minister continue to encourage an enterprise of [draft] evasion and refusal on historic scales,” he says in a statement.

According to a spokesman, Lapid’s statement was also in response to two separate overnight incidents in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya in which dozens of Haredi protesters, mobilized by the extremist ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem Faction, prevented Military Police from arresting draft evaders.

After blocking the soldiers, the yeshiva students danced in celebration. The Jerusalem Faction runs a “national alert system” that sends warnings of IDF operations against draft dodgers.

According to Channel 12, last night’s anti-enforcement protests were the third time this month that protesters had managed to prevent arrests of yeshiva students.