{"id":293266,"date":"2026-02-15T23:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293266\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T23:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:48:11","slug":"2-female-soldiers-chased-by-rioting-haredi-mob-in-bnei-brak-rescued-by-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/293266\/","title":{"rendered":"2 female soldiers chased by rioting Haredi mob in Bnei Brak, rescued by police"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two female soldiers came under attack Sunday afternoon by hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men in Bnei Brak, who chased after the pair, as police spirited them out of the Haredi city.<\/p>\n

In staggering footage of the attack, a handful of officers were seen shielding the two servicewomen as they fled a Haredi mob thronging the street, which was littered with garbage and overturned garbage dumpsters.<\/p>\n

The servicewomen, squad commanders at the Education and Youth Corps, had been on an official home visit to one of the soldiers in their unit when they were confronted by the mob. Contrary to some claims, they were not members of the Military Police.<\/p>\n

The two were forced to hide behind dumpsters, while police rushed to the scene on foot. While officers left their vehicles unattended, rioters overturned a patrol car and set fire to a police motorcycle.<\/p>\n

One of the servicewomen told the Walla news outlet that she had asked her commanders not to send them into the city, but was given no choice. The pair had entered wearing skirts and left their weapons at home so as not to provoke residents.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday evening, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke to the pair of young women, lamenting the \u201cintolerable reality\u201d in which the attack took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reality in which IDF soldiers, men and women, cannot move freely within the State of Israel is an intolerable reality that must be addressed,\u201d Zamir told the servicewomen. \u201cWe will not accept harm to our soldiers, and I expect that the law will be fully enforced against those who harmed you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd continued to wreak havoc after the soldiers were rescued, throwing stones, burning dumpsters, and attacking law enforcement at the scene. Large police forces were deployed to the area, including mounted officers and riot police, who used stun grenades to quell the upheaval.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox Jewish men clash with police following an assault on two female Israeli soldiers in Bnei Brak, February 15, 2026. (Oren Ziv\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Police arrested 23 members of the mob, the Tel Aviv District chief said an hour after the riots broke out. Three officers were lightly injured during the commotion.<\/p>\n

The police motorcycle that protesters set on fire contained a tefillin and a prayer book in its luggage box, police said. The ritual items were burned to a crisp in the attack.<\/p>\n

In a video clip shared by police, a Hatzalah volunteer could be seen trying to prevent the motorcycle from going up in flames. Haredi rioters jump toward him and grab his arm, dragging him from the vehicle.<\/p>\n

A Hatzalah medic tries to keep a police motorbike from burning to a crisp, but young Haredi men spring forward, grab his arm and drag him from the vehicle pic.twitter.com\/RFkvWnojPI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 charlie summers (@cbsu03) February 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Reporters covering the incident\u2019s aftermath were seen being shoved and harassed by young men on the street, despite the police forces operating at the scene.<\/p>\n

Violence harms \u2018righteous\u2019 anti-draft struggle<\/p>\n

The ambush and subsequent riots received across-the-board condemnation, including from Haredi politicians and spiritual leaders, who warned that the incident might damage the community\u2019s anti-conscription efforts.<\/p>\n

Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, said he was shocked by the footage and called the violence \u201ccontrary to the Torah.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Sephardic counterpart, Shas head Aryeh Deri, said the incident stood to \u201charm the entire Haredi public, cause a desecration of God\u2019s name, and inflict heavy damage on the righteous struggle for the Torah world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tThe mob that chased two female soldiers in Bnei Brak on February 15, 2026 (Screen grab\/David Keshet\/X)<\/p>\n

Deri\u2019s remarks came shortly after former Sephardic chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef went so far as to call for the excommunication of those who took part in the attack. \u201cThere is no place for such behavior among us. They must be denounced and cast out from the community,\u201d Yosef declared.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as \u201ccompletely unacceptable,\u201d while saying that the perpetrators were an \u201cextreme minority that does not represent the entire Haredi community.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir made similar remarks, promising that the attackers \u2014 a \u201csmall group of violent anarchists\u201d \u2014 would \u201cpay a heavy price,\u201d but that they nevertheless did not represent \u201cthe vast majority of the Haredi public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police chide army for not coordinating visit with cops<\/p>\n

Speaking on the edge of the city after the riots had calmed, Tel Aviv District police commander Haim Sargaroff appeared to place partial blame on the army, saying it \u201cdid not coordinate\u201d with law enforcement in advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment we know that an IDF force is entering [a Haredi area], we are prepared to provide reinforcement, but when they enter without coordinating with us, when they enter and start carrying out an operation, we are only [able to] react,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Military Police, responsible for detaining draft dodgers, is supposed to obtain permission from local law enforcement in advance before entering a Haredi area to carry out arrests, but the two servicewomen had not been sent to catch draft evaders.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tTel Aviv District commander Haim Sargaroff speaks to reporters after a riot in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak on February 15, 2026. (Screenshot\/Channel 12)<\/p>\n

According to Sargaroff, the two soldiers found refuge with a law-abiding resident who hid them in a \u201csecure place,\u201d while police rushed to the scene and eventually extracted them from the city.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement arrived in limited numbers, leaving their squad cars and motorcycles unattended while running to the soldiers on foot, Sargaroff said. During that time, rioters \u201ctook advantage of the situation,\u201d overturning a patrol car and setting fire to a police motorcycle.<\/p>\n

Asked by a reporter whether police were afraid of entering Haredi areas, Sargaroff averred, \u201cWe are not afraid. We enter any area, at any time, any yeshiva. There is no concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, IDF officials have complained that police systematically prevent them from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, amid regular outbursts of violence whenever security forces are seen operating in such areas.<\/p>\n

The attack occurred after a resident called a telephone hotline run by the Jerusalem Faction, a hardline anti-conscription group, to wrongly claim that the soldiers were attempting to deliver conscription orders.<\/p>\n

At 1:43 p.m., a hotline set up by the group sent its subscribers an email claiming that \u201cMilitary Police soldiers are now roaming around Bnei Brak handing out conscription orders\u201d and that there were \u201criots in several locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tPolice in Bnei Brak following an assault on two female soldiers, February 15, 2026 (Oren Ziv\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Later, a spokesman for the Jerusalem Faction denied any connection with the incident, stating that the riots were \u201cnot something organized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what caused it. I have no idea. I don\u2019t know what it was about,\u201d he told The Times of Israel. \u201cI have no idea what happened there, but I can only understand that today people in military uniforms are coming into Bnei Brak\u2026 It could raise everyone\u2019s eyebrows, the fear that they might be coming to arrest yeshiva boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being shown screenshots of the emails, the spokesman shared an audio clip circulating on an ultra-Orthodox WhatsApp group in which a man was heard saying that he called the hotline after the two soldiers knocked on his door in order to present him with an enlistment order.<\/p>\n

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.<\/p>\n

For the past two years, the Haredi leadership has pushed for a law keeping its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal. Since then, coalition lawmakers, dependent on Haredi support to keep them in government, have struggled to find a formulation that could win ultra-Orthodox backing while also meeting widespread demands for the community to share in the burden of mandatory military service.<\/p>\n

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