Shas Minister Ya'akov Margi denounced those protesting against Rabbi David Leibel, who supported haredi IDF recruitment, as "violent extremists that should be protested," Kan News reported Friday morning. Dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremists tried to break into the home of Rabbi David Leibel, a haredi entrepreneur and businessman, on Thursday. In recent months, he has been encouraging the enlistment of haredim who do not study Torah, Walla reported Thursday evening.Margi has been in continuous dialogue with senior IDF officials to establish a new haredi brigade. Associates of the rabbi said, "The family is in great fear. There is no control over the situation."

A plane carrying detainees released by Russia landed in the United States late on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, media footage showed.Russia freed US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan on Thursday as part of the biggest prisoner exchange of its kind since the end of the Cold War.The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia.