Indictment Filed Against 17 Felony-Linked Protesters After Ashkelon Home Invasion

Southern District prosecutors filed a serious indictment on Monday in Ashkelon against 17 members of the Jerusalem Faction, including four minors, over a protest that turned violent at the home of the military police chief, Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin, about six weeks ago. The demonstration was held in protest of the arrest of yeshiva students.

According to the indictment, dozens of protesters gathered near Yamin’s home carrying signs that read, “War on the draft law, in deeds not in words!” The rally quickly escalated when some participants broke through the locked entrance gate and entered the private yard, porch and stairs. At the time, Yamin’s wife and two of their children, one of them a minor, were inside the house and found themselves trapped and unable to leave safely.

Prosecutors say the crowd refused to disperse, sat and stood in place, held hands, sang protest songs and shouted abuse at the senior officer and at the IDF, while more people crowded the street entrance. The family was forced to close the shutters, lock the doors and call the police. Ashkelon police eventually intervened and arrested the suspects at the scene.

The damage included the gate lock mechanism, sections of the concrete wall, the porch tiles and the garden plants, with losses estimated at thousands of shekels. The indictment cites the offenses of rioting, trespassing to commit an offense and malicious damage. Alongside the charges, prosecutors asked the court to impose urgent release conditions to ensure the defendants appear for further proceedings. Police said 25 people were detained in total, and some were later released by the court. The incident drew sharp condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, while Jerusalem Faction leaders said they would continue protesting arrests of yeshiva students.