A Haredi resident of Safed says he was threatened at gunpoint by an IDF career soldier during a roadside confrontation on Route 90 last week, in an incident he has now described publicly for the first time. Speaking to 103FM and separately to the Haredi outlet Charedim 10, the man, identified only as N., said the encounter left him so shaken that he suffered a panic attack and had to be treated by paramedics afterward.
According to his account, the soldier was driving alongside him near the Rosh Pina junction and signaled for him to pull over. N. said he stopped at a red light and got out of his car to ask what the soldier wanted. He says the soldier then leaned out of his vehicle window holding a loaded M16 rifle and told him not to move, warning that he would shoot him.
"I Thought It Was A Joke At First"
N. told the outlets he initially assumed the confrontation was some kind of joke, but once he realized the threat was serious, he quickly returned to his car. He said he then tried to retrieve a dashcam-style camera to document the incident, but by the time he came back, the soldier had rolled up his window and the weapon was no longer visible.
N. said the soldier repeatedly used the word "deserter" during the confrontation, a term he said he did not understand being directed at him. "I told him I did serve in the army," he said. "But even if I hadn't, you can't do something like this to a person."
Detained, Then A Restraining Order
N. drove to the police station in Rosh Pina, where he says he suffered a panic attack, describing himself as shaking uncontrollably, with police offering him water and calling an ambulance. According to Charedim 10's report, police responded quickly, located and detained the soldier, and issued a restraining order against him. N. told the outlet that as the soldier was being led out of the station, he shouted that N. was an informant and that he would make sure N. was arrested too, a threat N. said left him confused until an investigator explained the soldier was violating the restraining order simply by speaking to him.
N. has since filed complaints with both the police and the IDF's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, in hopes the incident will be formally investigated.
Filed Amid Wider Tensions
N. said he felt compelled to come forward specifically because of the current climate around Haredi enlistment and the broader tension between Haredi communities and Israeli society. "If this weren't the situation in the country right now, maybe I would have just kept my head down and gone home," he said. "But I felt like our blood had been declared fair game. You're walking down the street, and someone points a gun at you. That shakes me to my core."
As of this writing, neither the IDF nor Israel Police have issued a public response to the allegations. The account represents N.'s version of events, and the circumstances remain under investigation following the complaints he filed.
