Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Jerusalem on Thursday to protest against efforts to end an exemption from military service for Israel’s Haredi religious students.

Nearly a year after a truce was meant to bring calm to Lebanon's border with Israel, tens of thousands of people have not yet returned to ruined towns in the south, kept away by deadly Israeli strikes and slim prospects of rebuilding.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men packed the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday, protesting government plans to draft them into the military. Chanting and waving signs saying they would rather go to jail,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to conduct ‘powerful strikes’ on the territory.