JERUSALEM (VINnews) — An 18-year-old man was killed and several others were injured during a large ultra-Orthodox protest against military conscription in Jerusalem after a bus struck demonstrators — an incident police say occurred outside the authorized protest zone and followed an assault on the driver.
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Israeli police said Wednesday that the bus driver called the emergency police hotline minutes before the collision, reporting that he was under attack. The driver repeated that account during questioning, investigators said.
According to police, the incident did not take place in the area of the demonstration that had been formally coordinated with authorities and closed to traffic. Instead, it unfolded at a nearby intersection that remained open to vehicles.
A police source said a group of youths created disturbances in the area and harassed motorists. The chain of events began on Yirmiyahu Street, where protesters blocked a bus. As the driver attempted to leave the scene, one of the youths clung to the vehicle, police said.
The bus then turned left at the Shmgar Junction and right onto Ohel Yehoshua Street, where it came to a stop. Emergency crews later pulled the teenager from beneath the bus, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three other people, including a minor, were taken to hospital with moderate injuries.
Political reaction intensifies
The incident occurred as thousands of ultra-Orthodox men gathered in northern Jerusalem to oppose government efforts to expand military conscription to yeshiva students — a move that has fueled weeks of unrest in Haredi neighborhoods.
Knesset member Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism party said he was “deeply shaken” by the incident and warned of what he described as a dangerous public climate.
“There is a growing sense that it is permissible to harm ultra-Orthodox protesters,” Porush said. “The incitement against the Haredi public is creating fear among Jews in the State of Israel. This must stop.”
He urged political leaders to condemn violence and inflammatory rhetoric directed at the ultra-Orthodox community.
Deepening divisions
The rally was organized by senior rabbis and backed by hard-line factions that have repeatedly staged protests against ending long-standing draft exemptions. Speakers at the protest framed compulsory service as an existential threat to religious life, while critics argue the current system unfairly burdens Israelis who serve.
Flyers and banners throughout ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in recent days denounced the proposed draft legislation as a “decree of destruction.”
Political leaders across Israel’s spectrum condemned the deadly outcome. Ultra-Orthodox parties demanded a full investigation, while government ministers and opposition figures urged restraint, saying no policy dispute justifies violence or loss of life.
The protest comes amid mounting pressure on the government to reform enlistment rules following court decisions that weakened decades-old exemptions for religious students. In recent weeks, clashes have erupted outside draft offices and during street demonstrations as tensions continue to rise.
Police said the investigation into the crash — including the actions of protesters and the driver — is ongoing.
A bus crashed into a crowd of ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters in Israel.
According to media reports, during a protest against the IDF draft in Jerusalem, buses struck a crowd of protesters. Several people were injured, and a 13-year-old boy is in critical condition.
On Shamgar… pic.twitter.com/rK7vPuDiKu
— lone wolf (@MApodogan) January 6, 2026
תיעוד מזעזע: אוטובוס דורס מפגינים נגד הגיוס בירושלים pic.twitter.com/eqjtMJLE61
— רגע NEWS (@reganews_israel) January 6, 2026
Bus rams into demonstrators (Warning: Graphic footage, viewer discretion advised)
Rescue attempts after the accident
Say what you want about M.O. people and M.O. schools, this type of wild behavior and destruction of property AKA major chillul Hashem does not go on in their world. The “pro-zionist” lovers of EY were in their yeshivas learning, working, attending a shiur and behaving themselves.
the blocking of roads and making fires has to stop
you want to have an atzeres tefillah go ahead with pleasure
but for the boys to act like animals destroying property
is assur period
and accomplishes nothing
the rabbonim could work behind closed doors and use all the leverage that they have
this behaviour is unexcusable
i was on shamgar and yirmiyahu and personally witnessed the entire story. the bus plowed thru the crowd and deliberately kept on going after clearly hitting ppl.although it was foolish of the boys, and the driver may not have even seen the boy hanging off the front, it was reckless and completely unexpected. he was plowing thru the street several hundred feet down where innocent ppl were on, not expecting traffic as there was a hafganah on the corner. anyone who is bashing this victem is heartless and should stop and think about how low they dropped.
Eizehu chacham? Haro’eh es hanolad.
This was the eminently foreseeable result of this style of protest. Those who sent the demonstrators out there should have had sufficient chochma to forsee something like this.
May the family have a nechama, and may wiser heads take heed before calling for this type of demonstration again.
The demonstrators threw rocks at the news crews filming the event. In the Yeshiva I went to, this type of behavior was not allowed by the RY’s. But that was many, many years ago.
If sympathy for the murdered cant be felt, just an attack on Chareidim then its about time we realize there is a huge hate problem here.
When a bochur got killed by the so called atzeres ha million a few weeks ago by the mainstream chareidim which blocked much of Yerushalayim the comments were not so sick and disgusting as these here. Dancing on your brother’s blood is more animalistic than the wildest demonstrators missing basic Jewish feeling It’s nothing to do with the demonstration from today. It’s the media and mainstream calling anyone different than them and extremist and vilifying them until their blood is cheap
This is the outcome of constant incitement against them. The nazis portrayed the Jews as vermin to make it easier to kill them. Not comparing the media to nazis but the tactic caused the same outcome.
The headline of this article is unacceptable, no excuses for murder.
I take it as a compliment that basically all my comments were flagged,
including if your going to blame Chareidim when someone was murdered instead of the murderor, and showing a bit of sympathy, then your headline should be I hate Chareidim,
sometimes the truth hurts too much it has to be censured.
The secular Israeli police have decided (despite the self- hating pundits here) to charge the driver with MURDER. It seems visit anyone’s is rational that driving a bus at high speed during a demonstration was at best reckless homicide. This was not the fault of anyone except the driver. To condemn this boy Hyd and criticize him before he was even buried is cruel and calls into question ones claims to be a beliveong Yid.
If you don’t want to fight stay in the bais medrash and learn Torah.
Oy Na Lanu 🙁
Call it what it is.
The situation in Isreal could soon(c’v) be past the point of no return. Now is the time to try to calm down the current tensions. To try to appease the hareidim. And if they don’t – it could get very ugly.
I think the Rosh Yeshivas should give schmoozes to the bochrim on how to behave at these demonstrations. The ultra orthodox were in part not right.
The hands of the wicked supreme court is QUITE LITERALLY dripping with Jewish Blood:- This tragedy 100% solely their fault.
LET US STOP BARKING AT EACH OTHER AND THRUSTING THANGS AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS. THE MURDEROUS BUS DRIVER WAS AN ARAB FROM MIZRACH YERUSHALAYIM – NOT A JEW.
The driver was Arab was obviously intentional