Ultra-Orthodox anti-draft mob attacks bereaved mother of IDF soldier in her car

Rioters try to overturn vehicle of Valerie Shoshan, who is the chief medical officer of the Israel Police; ‘I felt Elyassaf was with me,’ she says of son killed in Gaza fighting

An ultra-Orthodox mob surrounded a car driven by the Israel Police chief medical officer, Chief Superintendent Dr. Valerie Shoshan, whose son was killed during fighting in the Gaza Strip, and tried to overturn the vehicle on Monday night as they protested against drafting community members into the army.

Shoshan, who was uninjured in the attack, spoke on Tuesday with the Ynet outlet about what had happened, and how, at the height of the assault, her thoughts turned to her slain son, Sgt. First Class (res.) Elyassaf Shoshan.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men took to the streets across Israel on Monday, blocking roads in cities from the north of the country to the south and bringing traffic to a standstill to protest the recent arrest of yeshiva students who evaded conscription to the military.

One such demonstration took place at the entrance to Jerusalem, causing traffic jams.

Shoshan explained that she was driving home alone when she became caught in the road blockage.

After about an hour, cars in front of her started moving, and she carefully followed, but the crowds apparently noticed her police license plates, she said.

תיעוד חריג | המון חרדי תקף קצינה בכירה שבנה נפל בעזה

עשרות חרדים תועדו הערב כשהם תוקפים את מכוניתה של קצינת הרפואה הראשית במשטרה, נצ"מ ד"ר ולרי שושן שבנה נפל במלחמה
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“In a moment, I found myself in a very unpleasant situation, when a mass of people surrounded the car and started to shake and move it while I was inside,” Shoshan told Ynet.

A video of the incident circulated on social media showed dozens of young men around the car, rocking it back and forth.

Then she heard people saying that they wanted to turn the car over, “and I understood that the incident had become dangerous.”

“Suddenly the words that he [Elyassaf] wrote to a friend before he entered Gaza came back to me,” she recalled. The friend had asked her son if he was afraid to go into Gaza. “Elyassaf responded that he wasn’t afraid and that he wanted to be one of the people who change the history of the country.”

“I got out of the car and tried to speak with the people,” Shoshan said. “I also saw an elderly man who tried with all his might to calm down the youths and stop them, but there were dozens of people.”

Shoshan then called the local district commander, Lieutenant Colonel Shlomi Bachar, asking him to send forces to rescue her.

Police officers swiftly arrived and made a human shield around her.

“I really felt as though angels had come to save me,” she said. “They extracted me from there and made sure I got out safely.”

“Despite what I experienced, I don’t think generalizations should be made,” Shoshan said. “There are many people in the Haredi community who oppose violence and don’t accept such behavior,” she said, using another term for the ultra-Orthodox community.

Chief of Police Danny Levy spoke with Shoshan after the incident, commending her for “behaving with courage” and saying she brought honor to the force “in a dangerous and complicated situation,” according to the report.

The demonstrations descended into violence at several locations after the Israel Police declared them illegal and deployed officers to break them up. One officer was lightly injured. In Jerusalem, a uniformed soldier had to be rescued by police officers after he got off a bus and found himself surrounded by Haredi rioters.

In November 2025, Haredi protesters flipped over a Military Police vehicle in Ramat Gan. The two officers inside were able to escape first, but required reinforcements to rescue them.