Police use stun grenades on Haredi protesters blocking Route 4 at Geha

Ultra-Orthodox protesters angered by the arrest of a man accused of evading military service blocked roads and clashed with police, The Times of Israel reported. The confrontation centred on the Geha junction on Route 4, a major north-south highway in central Israel.

Police threw several stun grenades toward the demonstrators blocking the junction, according to a report by journalist Amit Segal, who described the protesters as extremist Haredim. Route 4 was later reopened to traffic in both directions, northbound and southbound, News.co.il reported.

The draft dispute behind the protest

Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews make up a distinct religious community in Israel, and the question of whether young Haredi men should serve in the Israel Defense Forces has long been one of the country's most divisive political issues. Many in the community regard full-time Torah study in a yeshiva, a religious seminary, as a religious duty that takes precedence over military service, while critics argue the burden of service should be shared. Arrests of men classified as draft evaders have repeatedly triggered street protests, often in the form of road blockades. The reports do not identify the man whose arrest set off this demonstration.

Political reaction to the footage

The handling of the protest quickly drew responses from senior politicians. Yaakov Asher, a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and chair of the United Torah Judaism party, which represents Ashkenazi Haredi voters, said his camp opposes blocking roads but could not stay silent about footage of the clashes. In a statement carried by Amit Segal, Asher said the videos showed protesters, among them a young man with special needs, lying on the ground injured and bleeding. He called such conduct "a red line" and urged the police commissioner to summon the officers involved to a hearing, saying they had acted unlawfully and with severe violence.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the Israel Police, directed his criticism at the commissioner, whom he referred to as Levi. In a statement published by News.co.il and also carried by Amit Segal, Ben Gvir accused the commissioner of spending recent days trying to please what he called the next government, and of seeking favour with Yair Golan, a figure on the Israeli left. Ben Gvir described the images from the Geha interchange as bizarre and as part of an effort to win over leftists. He said the commissioner had followed his instructions for a year and a half but, after the elections, had turned against the Haredim in a manner Ben Gvir said was unlawful.

The statement reflects visible strain between the minister and the police leadership. The reports do not include any response from the commissioner or from the police to either politician's remarks.

Disputed claims of police injuries

Accounts differ on whether officers were hurt. News.co.il said police had reported officers wounded on Route 4, but that people in rescue organisations said they had received no calls to treat injured police and knew of no casualties among officers. News.co.il presented this as contradicting the police account. The police statement itself is not included in the material, so its exact wording and any figures it gave cannot be checked here.

News.co.il, which posts on the Telegram messaging service, also published its own commentary on the events, including criticism of Ben Gvir and of US Ambassador Mike Huckabee for not commenting. Those posts are opinion and are not treated here as reporting of fact.

What the reports do not say

• Who the arrested man was, where he was detained, or what happened to him after his arrest.
• How many people took part in the protest, how long the roads were blocked, or which other roads, if any, were closed.
• How many protesters were injured, how seriously, or whether any were arrested.
• Whether any police officers were in fact hurt, given the conflicting accounts.
• Whether the police commissioner has responded to calls for a hearing, or whether any investigation into the officers' conduct has been opened.