עימותים בהפגנהדוברות המשטרה

Five people were arrested on Sunday night in clashes between police officers and haredi protesters in Jerusalem, during a demonstration against the Supreme Court’s ruling on drafting haredim into the army.

Disturbances were recorded at the scene, which included the throwing of rocks at the officers, setting fire to trash cans and infrastructure, and shouts against the officers.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf's vehicle was attacked with rocks as it drove through the area in which the protest took place.. Later, the car of former Minister Yaakov Litzman was also pelted by rocks in the Romema neighborhood.

Police and Border Police officers arrested five suspects. Two of them were arrested for attacking police officers, and three other suspects were arrested for throwing rocks and objects.

The arrested suspects were taken for questioning.

Police said that a number of police officers were injured as a result of rocks and objects being thrown at them and hitting them, including a female police officer who suffered light injuries to her head and a police officer who was injured in the leg.

After midnight, all the roads that were blocked to traffic during the evening hours were opened.

Commander Shlomi Tobul, commander of the Lev HaBira station, said in the wake of the disturbances, "At a certain point the protest turned into a violent disturbance with the participation of hundreds of disruptors. In the last hours, rocks, objects, planks, and everything else was thrown at police officers and security forces operating in the area. At this stage, when the protest turned into a violent disturbance, we ordered it to disperse. When the lawbreakers did not disperse and continued to violate the order, throwing objects at the police forces and setting fire on the road, we had to act by force and by riot dispersal means in order to repel them and stop the riot.”

“It cannot be ignored that a significant part of those lawbreakers were children - it is not certain that all of them are of the age of criminal responsibility. This is not the first time that we, and I personally, have come across children who are at the forefront of disturbances in the area. This is a worrying, dangerous and wrong phenomenon that must be denounced from the root and stop," said Commander Tobul.

"Those people who tonight tried to harm the police officers and a government minister, who violated the order and who behaved violently - put a big stain on the entire haredi public with their violent and dangerous behavior. We take seriously the violence directed against the police officers and the Border Police officers. We will continue to allow protests in accordance with the law for everyone, on the condition that they will not be used as a demonstration of violence and unrestrained unrest, as we saw tonight in Jerusalem."