Yosef Eisenthal, a 14-year-old boy, was killed, and three were injured after a bus driver ran over ultra-Orthodox Jews during a haredi draft protest in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
"We responded to a severe collision involving a bus and several pedestrians," said United Hatzalah volunteer Dr. Aryeh Yaffe. "A male pedestrian was trapped unconscious under the vehicle. Fire and Rescue personnel extracted the patient, who was unfortunately found with no signs of life and pronounced deceased at the scene."
"We also provided initial medical treatment to three additional pedestrians who sustained minor traumatic injuries; they were transported to the hospital in stable condition," Yaffe said.
Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem said that it received a 14-year-old injured in the accident, while MDA said the other two injured had been transported to Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mount Scopus.
The driver was arrested at the scene. Maariv quoted him as saying that "they [ultra-Orthodox protesters] climbed onto the bus and I tried to get away."
The hit-and-run occured as thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters gathered in Israel's capital on Tuesday evening, congregating along Bar-Ilan Road and nearby streets in Jerusalem.
"We are deeply shaken by the severe ramming incident in Jerusalem, in which a haredi man was run over and killed during a protest," Shas said in a statement following the incident, demanding a "thorough and uncompromising" police investigation.
"Haredi blood is not cheap."
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Goldknopf expressed his condolences to the family of the 14-year-old who was killed, and to the three others injured in the incident, in his own statement on the matter.
Goldknopf echoed Shas's call for a complete investigation and for Israel Police to "exhaust the full severity of the law against the driver."
"It is impossible to move on as if nothing happened when there has been a loss of control and harm to human life," Goldknopf concluded.
"Our country cannot look like this," former prime minister Naftali Bennett wrote in a post to X/Twitter.
"A dangerous red line was crossed tonight," Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar said in his own X post. "No ideological debate justifies the murder of a Jewish youth."
MK Yair Golan (Democrats) called the incident a "horror," sending his own condolences to the families of the 14-year-old who was killed and those of the injured.
Blocking traffic, damaging buses, burning bins
In a statement, the Israel Police said that while officers were deployed to try to quell riots, protesters quickly became violent towards officers.
"The Police reported that a handful of rioters began to violently disrupt public order, including by blocking traffic lanes, damaging buses, burning bins, throwing objects and eggs at police and Border Police soldiers, shouting insults, and attacking journalists who were working at the scene.”
The statement went on to describe the bus incident as well as how protesters threw stones at officers and Israeli public broadcaster KAN News journalists at the scene.
KAN reported that its journalists fled into a nearby store to get away, and were eventually escorted to safety by Border Police.
"As a result of these events, the police ordered the rioters to disperse and began operations to restore public order using force. The police are continuing to operate at this time to restore peace and order in the area,” the statement concluded.
Protest organized by haredi leaders, in coordination with police
"Agreeing to a draft law is agreeing to the destruction of Judaism," some of the signs held by protesters read.
Other signs allege that the Israeli government discriminates against Sephardic Jews, calling Israel an "apartheid state."
According to Ynet, the protest was organized by Moshe Tzedaka, Rabbi of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, a prominent voice against haredi conscription into the IDF, along with other haredi leaders.
Hundreds of Israel and Border Police personnel were stationed in the area to "maintain security, public order, and the safety of all participants and city residents, and to direct traffic in the area," the police said earlier on Monday.
Israel Police also warned of heavy traffic in the area, including around the entrance and exit to Jerusalem.
Ultra-Orthodox protests erupt across Israel on haredi IDF enlistment day
The mass Jerusalem protest follows Sunday's protests, where haredim demonstrated against the IDF enlistment day, recruiting haredi conscripts into combat units in Israel’s military.
Clashes broke out between police officers and haredi protesters outside the Jerusalem recruitment office, while an illegal demonstration also took place near the IDF recruitment office in Kiryat Ono, blocking the entrance to the Tel Hashomer military base.
A haredi protester said “recruitment offices are like extermination ovens to us,” when speaking to Kan News outside of the Tel Hashomer base.
He added that the offices are places “where hundreds and thousands entered wearing a kippah, tzitzit, and keeping Shabbat and mitzvot, and tens of percent left without them [...] we will continue to fight until the rule of evil is overturned.”
Keshet Neev and Fraidy Moser contributed to this report.