Haredi Protesters Set to Paralyze Major Roads at 5 PM, and Police Admit They Have No Idea Where

Israeli police are bracing Thursday afternoon for a wave of simultaneous mass protests across the country, set to erupt at 5:00 p.m. at the instruction of Rabbi Tzvi Friedman and the rabbinical leadership of the Peleg Yerushalmi (Jerusalem faction), a hardline Haredi group known for its opposition to IDF conscription.

The demonstrations are a direct response to the recent military detention of several yeshiva students who failed to report for induction. According to reports, a major protest is planned in the Tel Aviv area, a second in another central location, and a third large gathering of Sephardic Torah students in Jerusalem.

The catch: police say they genuinely don't know where any of them will actually take place.

The Peleg has made an art form of operational secrecy. Hundreds of participants are kept in the dark about the exact location of a planned roadblock until the moment the order is given, leaving security forces scrambling to respond after the fact rather than prepare in advance. The tactic has worked repeatedly.

Several weeks ago, hundreds of officers deployed in force along Route 4, only to find the protest materializing at the entrance to Jerusalem instead. In another incident, hundreds of demonstrators quietly made their way to Ashkelon, where they held a stormy protest outside the home of the chief military police officer, Brigadier General Yuval Yamin, and later attempted to breach the grounds of his home in the days that followed.

Sources involved in the situation said Thursday, with a degree of dark humor, that perhaps the time has come for Israeli intelligence to redirect its resources. Instead of investing in surveillance and sophisticated spy technology aimed at distant enemy states, they suggested, the Shin Bet might consider tracking the Peleg's operational planners, who have managed to outmaneuver the security establishment time and again.