Two female Israeli soldiers rescued after they are chased by huge crowd of ultra-Orthodox men during riot

Israeli police arrested 28 people after a large mob of ultra-Orthodox men chased two female IDF soldiers through the streets.

Chaotic scenes broke out in the city of Bnei Brak amid anger over conscription orders, with police using stun grenades to control the situation.

Footage from Sunday afternoon shows two women being escorted away by police while a huge crowd of men chased after them, shouting and kicking wheelie bins along the street.

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The rioters injured five police officers, overturned a patrol car and set fire to a police motorcycle, reports say.

All 28 Haredi men and teenagers arrested during the riots have now been freed, a lawyer representing the suspects told Israeli media.

Shlomo Hadad told The Times of Israel that his clients had been freed because there was “no evidence for anything”, claiming the arrests were a “show for the media”.

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But two of the suspects have been ordered to five days of house arrest after the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court said there was “reasonable suspicion” they had assaulted a police officer, according to Israeli outlet Ynet.

Police are still searching for the rioters who overturned a patrol car and set fire to the motorcycle, Tel Aviv District police commander Haim Sargaroff told reporters on Sunday.

Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party, was forced on Sunday to deny that his rhetoric was responsible for inciting violence against Israel’s military forces.

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The rabbi ordered students at ultra-orthodox schools to ignore, on religious grounds, conscription orders to the IDF, an order usually received at the age of 18.

Non-compliance can see teenagers sent to prison, as has been the case with dozens of conscientious objectors of Israel’s war in Gaza.

A 2024 order by Israel’s Supreme Court ended a long-standing exemption for Haredi Jews for conscription, after which the military began drafting ultra-orthodox men.

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“What is this nonsense? Where did he use rhetoric that even hinted that one should go to demonstrations or use force or do something similar to that,” a spokesman for Rabbi Lando said.

Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, also responded to the violence while speaking in the Knesset on Monday.

“What we saw yesterday in Bnei Brak is not an isolated phenomenon. It happens time and time again under this government. You are permitting [the shedding of] the blood of the IDF. You are against the IDF,” he said.

Mr Lapid added that such violence “isn’t just happening in Bnei Brak”, referencing recent attacks by Israeli settlers against IDF troops in the West Bank.