The IDF has acknowledged that a Charedi detainee held in a military prison was prevented from putting on tefillin. The army apologized, labeling the incident a grave error and emphasizing that it was “a highly unusual case.”

The detainee, Rabbi Avraham Ben Dayan, married only a few months and a talmid of the Maor Talmud yeshiva, was staying in Tifrach for Shabbos when traffic police stopped him. He was then transferred to the Ofakim police station, which handed him over to the Military Police later that night.

His wife, Esti Ben David, recounted the ordeal on Kol Berama: “My husband was traveling with his mother, police officers stopped them for a routine check, and the policewoman told them that he came with them to Sde Teiman (prison). I went there, no one knew what to tell me about him. They told me that he was on his way to Ofakim, and then a soldier called me and told me that he was in the city of the battalion. They lied to us all night. They took him and didn’t let me talk to him.”

She described being sent from place to place with no answers: “They ran us from place to place all night, as if it were a terrorist. My husband received two warrants in total, he studies Torah day and night… We couldn’t breathe, we didn’t have time.”

She said he also told her he had been denied the ability to don tefillin. “At five in the afternoon, before the trial, they let him talk to me for a minute. He was broken and told me that they wouldn’t let him put on tefillin. He was done for, really broken and shattered. In a Jewish state, not letting him put on tefillin? What is he, a criminal? It’s shameful and disgraceful.”

In its response, the IDF explained that the detainee had been held overnight after being transferred from police custody. “Upon his arrival at the military prison in the afternoon, he asked the reception staff to put on tefillin and was told that he would be given the opportunity upon his arrival at the detention unit. However, due to an unexpected delay in his reception… the detainee ultimately did not have time to put on tefillin.”

The military admitted the incident should never have occurred: “This is a highly unusual case, which does not conform to army orders.” The IDF expressed regret for the emotional harm caused, announced that prison procedures have been tightened immediately, and said commanders will conduct a full investigation to ensure no similar incidents occur in the future.

They added that the detainee is currently held in a facility the army says is equipped for his religious needs.