New testimony from journalist Shilo Fried describes an incident in the Binyamin region in which Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men, fearing arrest for draft evasion, fled a police vehicle and drove to a village, where they clashed with Palestinians before being rescued by a friend. One individual is currently being held by police, according to the report.
Thursday morning's testimony from journalist Shilo Fried provides a new account of the chain of events that triggered a major security alert in the Binyamin region earlier today, involving Haredi draft evaders fleeing police into a Palestinian village. Fried's report, which emerged after the IDF had already scaled back its kidnapping protocol and confirmed all Israelis had left the village, describes the Haredi men fearing arrest for draft evasion as they were in a police vehicle and fled. They drove to a village, where they clashed with Palestinians before being rescued by a friend. One individual is currently being held by police, according to the report.
As reported by The Zioneer throughout the morning, the incident began at approximately 07:30 Jerusalem time when the IDF announced it was searching for Israeli civilians who had lost contact in the village of Mukhmas, with an Apache attack helicopter deployed. By the same hour, the IDF had established contact with several Israelis who had left the village on their own, reporting that all occupants had safely exited. The military continued sweeping nearby areas and later publicly ruled out a kidnapping scenario after all Israeli individuals were accounted for. However, earlier reports had noted that two occupants located in Jerusalem refused to cooperate with authorities, prolonging the search. Fried's testimony, while sourced from a single individual, adds the behind-the-scenes detail of the police chase and the confrontations that preceded the security forces' operation.
The day's events follow a pattern of tensions over Haredi military conscription reported by The Zioneer in recent weeks. On Tuesday, June 30, police detained a Haredi man and released him as a crowd gathered; on the same day, a car-theft suspect who breached the Hizma checkpoint was arrested. Earlier, on June 11, soldiers were reportedly rescued from a police vehicle they were trapped in, while in early June a deserter was arrested after a crowd freed him from a police van in Jerusalem. The current account is the first in this series to involve a reported clash with Palestinians within a village setting.
Fried's testimony remains from a single source, and official Israeli police or security sources have not confirmed the sequence involving the police vehicle or the nature of the confrontation in the village.
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