Chaos erupted in Jerusalem on Thursday as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with Israeli authorities, injuring 13 police officers.
A mob threw stones and eggs at police, threatened to kill a municipal worker and flipped over a patrol car, Israeli police said. Footage on social media showed police throwing stun grenades, beating people and firing a water cannon.
Police said the violence started on Thursday morning after a worker reported being assaulted and having his life threatened by two people, prompting authorities to arrest the suspects. Shortly after, hundreds gathered and clashes with police broke out.
As a result of the violence, 13 police officers sustained minor injuries, five of whom were taken to hospital. Four police vehicles were badly damaged, officers said. Authorities said that four people have been arrested so far, including the initial assailants.
The clashes come at a time of tension over the question of the ultra-Orthodox serving in Israel’s military. Israel’s government is trying to hammer out a bill to enshrine in law the community’s obligations to the army, in which service is mandatory for all other Israeli Jews.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews were given an exemption at the foundation of the state, which the Israeli judiciary has since declared illegal. Many Israelis are bitterly opposed to the community’s current exemption from military service, but ultra-Orthodox parties form an important bloc in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which gives the community major leverage in securing exemptions.
Naor Shiri, a member of Israel's parliament from the centrist Yesh Atid party, called for “every demonstrator who throws a stone" at a soldier to "end the day with a bullet in the knee. No less.”
Israel was separately quelling unrest from its own citizens on the border with Gaza on Thursday, as the army said a group of people crossed into the strip before being returned by troops. A fence was broken in a second attempt to enter.
A settler movement called Nachala, which supports Israeli resettlement of Gaza, claimed credit for the intrusion, saying supporters had "proudly waved the Israeli flag" inside the territory.
Israel dismantled its former settlements in Gaza in 2005. But Mr Netanyahu's coalition is expanding them in the occupied West Bank, despite objections that they are illegal under international treaties and would make it impossible for a Palestinian state to function.
