Dozens of Haredi men blocked traffic at a security checkpoint between the West Bank and south Jerusalem on Sunday following the arrest of a suspected participant in the Wednesday night attack on the home of Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg.
The 26-year-old Beit Shemesh resident, one of 65 suspected rioters detained thus far, was nabbed while driving in the West Bank near the large Haredi settlement of Beitar Illit.
The suspect tried to lock himself in his car after police stopped him on the road, but officers broke into the vehicle and apprehended him, police said, adding that he would be brought to court for an extension of his remand.
Soon after the arrest, dozens of Haredim burst onto the road and brought traffic to a standstill at the Tunnels Checkpoint, not far from where police had detained the suspect.
Police said the protesters blocked vehicles, hauled boulders onto the road and lit fires.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Officers managed to disperse the protest after roughly an hour, according to police. No arrests were reported.
הפרגוד: רכב הותקף בכביש המנהרות אחרי שניסה לדרוס מפגינים pic.twitter.com/GQyWh06Bvx
— הפרגוד (@moshepargod) June 7, 2026
Rioters had shattered windows and vandalized property outside Sohlberg’s house, in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, in protest of the Supreme Court’s demand that the government do more to draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
Sohlberg and his wife were home at the time, and an initial police probe reportedly found that the rioters sought to physically harm the judge.
Of the suspected rioters arrested so far, 62 have been brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for an extension of their remand.
Police inspect a damaged car at the home of Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, following a violent riot by Haredi men protesting the arrest of yeshiva students who failed to comply with Israeli military recruitment orders, June 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
According to a lawyer for some of the detainees, a total of 58 suspects were still in custody as of Sunday morning.
Eighteen suspects were released to house arrest Thursday evening on the order of a judge, but police successfully appealed the decision Friday, and the 18 suspects were held in custody over the weekend.
On Friday night, ultra-Orthodox extremists protesting the suspects’ continued detention tried to break into a Jerusalem police station. Similar riots broke out in Beit Shemesh, where rioters threw stones at officers.
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg at a hearing on the draft of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the IDF, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, April 12, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Five minors detained Wednesday night were set to go free Friday, but their status is unclear.
Sohlberg, the deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court, often hears petitions demanding Haredi enlistment, and wrote a November 2025 ruling that the government must impose effective enforcement measures and criminal penalties on ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who fail to enlist.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Discover Israel’s most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen ‘The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg’ June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You’re a dedicated reader
That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel