Haredi rioters sought to physically harm deputy Supreme Court chief, police said to find

Channel 12 says initial probe shows ultra-Orthodox attackers were highly organized, intended to hurt Noam Sohlberg; source says rioters ‘came to cause a pogrom’

An initial police probe into a riot carried out by ultra-Orthodox extremists at the home of Deputy Chief Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday has found that it was organized in advance with the intent to physically harm the judge, Channel 12 reported Saturday, quoting a senior official involved in the investigation.

Dozens of Haredi extremists descended on Solberg’s home in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut while he and his wife were present, as they protested against the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers. Images from the aftermath showed shattered windows, a car in the garage with a smashed windshield, and a small Israeli flag with a swastika in place of the Star of David.

The rioters arrived on several buses, the Channel 12 report said, quoting the unnamed official as saying that the event “was not a spontaneous gathering.”

“They planned to physically harm the judge,” the source said, adding that they would have succeeded “if a large force of riot police had not arrived in time and dispersed them.”

According to the report, the rioters arrived with fake identification cards in an effort to hinder their arrests.

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Police arrested 62 people in connection with the incident, which came amid a string of violent demonstrations targeting law enforcement over the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

“We know who the leader is and who directed them, and we will get to them,” the source added, according to Channel 12.

“These are people who came to cause a pogrom and leave,” the source said.

Remand hearings for 55 of those arrested will be held Sunday, the TV outlet reported.

The report added that in contrast, nobody was arrested in Jerusalem or Beit Shemesh on Friday night when Haredi extremists targeted law enforcement and tried to break into the police station in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound in protests against the arrest of draft-evaders and of the rioters detained outside Sohlberg’s home.

Haredim frequently hold protests and riots over the issue of the military draft, especially the arrests of draft evaders, amid efforts to pass legislation that would enshrine the blanket exemption from conscription long afforded to Haredi men, after the High Court revoked the exemptions in a 2024 ruling.

In April, the High Court ordered the government to adopt economic sanctions against ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers and called on the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against them, saying the government had failed to implement a previous ruling from November 2025 to adopt enforcement measures against ultra-Orthodox men who have failed to enlist in the IDF after being sent conscription orders.

Israel’s multi-front fighting following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, as well as repeated warnings from the military of an urgent manpower shortage, have made the issue especially charged in recent years. The IDF recently warned that the shortage, along with high burnout among troops, sparking fears that the reserve army could “collapse” if necessary legislation is not advanced by the government.

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