Police rescue 3 IDF soldiers from ultra-Orthodox mob

Police were called in Thursday to rescue three IDF soldiers after they were trapped inside a Jerusalem synagogue by an angry mob of ultra-Orthodox protesters.

The soldiers were safely extracted from the building, in the Zichron Moshe neighborhood of the capital, after cops pushed back the crowd, police said in a statement.

There were no injuries or arrests in the incident. It is not known if the protesters knew the soldiers in question.

In August several dozen ultra-Orthodox protesters clashed with police as they demonstrated outside the Jerusalem army recruitment office against the arrest of a yeshiva student who failed to show up for his enlistment.

Relations between the ultra-Orthodox community and the army are strained, as leaders of the community perceive the army as a threat to their way of life and seek to prevent the enlistment of its members.

Many in the ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) community shun the mandatory national service that applies to most Israelis, and the community has historically enjoyed blanket exemptions from the army, in favor of religious seminary studies.

Reforms passed in the Knesset in 2014 that sought to do away with the exemptions and gradually increase ultra-Orthodox recruitment met fierce opposition from many in the community.

In late November, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Equal Service Law, dramatically rolling back 2014 reforms and scrapping collective penalties to be imposed if annual quotas for ultra-Orthodox draftees were not met.