A religious woman and a male Israeli soldier sitting next to her were assaulted on an Israeli bus.
Five fervently Orthodox youth asked the religious woman to move to the back of the Beit Shemesh-bound bus and she refused, according to Jerusalem police. The haredi youth then began to assault her and the soldier.
When police arrived at the scene, several dozen fervently Orthodox men attacked them and punctured their tires before escaping.
Last year a 50-year-old woman was beaten for refusing to move to the back of a bus heading to the Western Wall. The fervently Orthodox, or haredi, community in Beit Shemesh has demanded a special bus line where men and women sit separately.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
