Israeli authorities arrested a chareidi draft evader on Monday at his home in Yerushalayim, marking the first proactive detention of its kind since the launch of Operation “Shaagat HaAri.”

According to reports from organizations affiliated with the Peleg Yerushalmi, the arrest took place in the Gilo neighborhood.

Since the start of the operation, the military police had refrained from carrying out targeted arrests of draft evaders until now.

The arrest comes a day after Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the government to move forward with revoking a series of financial benefits from those who fail to report for military service. The measures include canceling eligibility for housing discounts under the “Mechir Matara” program, eliminating daycare subsidies, ending support for after-school programs, and removing discounts on public transportation and municipal taxes.

In their ruling, the justices sharply criticized law enforcement for halting action against draft evaders, writing: “The complete avoidance by the police of exercising its authority, effectively leaving that authority unused, cannot be justified by claims of prioritization; budgetary constraints or lack of resources are not a valid excuse for inaction.”

Following the court’s decision, Slabodka rosh yeshiva Rav Dov Landau issued a strong response rejecting any compliance with military service. “Yeshiva students will not go to the army under any circumstances, not by force and not willingly, whether there is a law or not,” he said at Ponovezh Yeshiva. He added: “The judicial authorities continue in their wrongdoing; in the end, the wicked will be held accountable. We will not relate to their decrees, we will ignore them, and they and their decrees will disappear.”

{Matzav.com}