Department of Internal Police Investigations probing footage of riot officer hitting young Haredi men with baton

The Department for Internal Police Investigations, the body responsible for conducting criminal probes into police officers, has begun looking into an incident in which a member of the Yasam riot police unit was filmed hitting young Haredi men with a baton, a spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.

“There were a number of videos submitted for review by DIPI,” the spokesperson says, confirming an earlier report by i24 News.

שאלתי דובר של גולדנופף להגיב על האלימות בירושלים. הוא שלח לי סרטון שבו שוטר מכה תלמידי ישיבה באלות ואמר: "אנחנו ראינו את זה" pic.twitter.com/97rfyGsbv6

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) December 18, 2025

Footage of the incident, which began circulating last week, appeared to show an armored police officer repeatedly striking multiple young Haredi men, driving them up a set of stairs and into a building during a riot in Jerusalem.

Hundreds of young Haredi men clashed with police on Thursday, injuring 13 officers and overturning a cruiser in a riot apparently sparked by an attempt to issue a parking ticket.

The commotion broke out after a municipal inspector who had been issuing parking tickets in the capital came under attack from two young Haredi men, police said. The pair kicked him and made threats on his life, promising to “slaughter” him if he returned to the area. Police officers called to aid the inspector in distress arrested one of the assailants, angering locals. Hundreds then gathered around the officers in an attempt to free the detainee, and events quickly mushroomed into rioting.

According to Hebrew outlets, officers had realized that the assailants were draft dodgers and sought to hand them over to the Military Police. The police only said in their statements that the riots were sparked over the parking ticket, and did not mention whether the pair were draft dodgers.

Police used stun grenades and tear gas on demonstrators.

Asked about the riot on Thursday, a spokesperson for United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf shared a copy of the video of the policeman striking the rioters, stating merely, “We saw this.”