A 14-year-old boy was killed on Tuesday when a bus drove into a crowd of ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters in Jerusalem, during a mass demonstration against military conscription. The Israeli police detained the driver, who alleged he was assaulted by rioters before the incident.
The protest, attended by thousands, turned violent when a small group began blocking traffic, damaging buses, setting trash bins on fire, and assaulting journalists, according to police. Video footage shows the bus moving into the crowd; the teenager was trapped underneath and pronounced dead at the scene.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been regularly demonstrating against a law that would conscript them into the army, as Israel's military faces manpower shortages after two years of war on multiple fronts. The community, which makes up 14% of Israel's Jewish population, has long been exempt from mandatory service under a 1948 ruling for full-time religious students.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces pressure to increase military recruitment, but ultra-Orthodox party leaders oppose conscription, threatening the stability of his coalition, which holds only 60 of 120 parliament seats. A new draft law was proposed in November after a previous bill was voted down in July, prompting the United Torah Judaism party to quit the government.
