The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they unfold.

Hundreds of members of the Gur and Boyan Hasidic groups, as well as from the extremist Jerusalem Faction, are protesting outside the Beit Lid military prison to decry the detention of ultra-Orthodox draft-dodgers arrested and held there.

According to Army Radio, the demonstrators are chanting against the “heretic” State of Israel, holding prayers, and calling the names of those arrested.

Some Jerusalem Faction members are reportedly trying to persuade the demonstrators to try to break into the prison, but no such action is taken.

On Thursday, prominent Haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando visited the prison to offer support to yeshiva students arrested for draft evasion, telling them that the entire Haredi community stands behind them.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership, including Lando, has rejected any attempt to find a compromise to draft at least some of the ultra-Orthodox youth to the military, after last year the High Court ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to the Haredi community were illegal.

Lando, who serves as the spiritual leader for the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction and is one of the most prominent figures in the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, has repeatedly told yeshiva students to ignore draft orders.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency claims at least 37 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including 30 civilians who were waiting to collect aid.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal tells AFP that 12 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on them as they gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza that has been used for aid deliveries.

Six more people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops allegedly targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza, he asserts.

Strikes in central Gaza also resulted in multiple casualties, according to Bassal, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least three people and wounded several others.

They reportedly include two nephews of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya.

The IDF has denied targeting aid seekers, saying it has fired warning shots toward people viewed as a threat after they veered off approved routes. It says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Eli Albag, father of released captive Liri Albag, says that while his daughter was in captivity, he planned at one point to set hundreds of car on fire as part of protests calling for a hostage deal.

“I had a plan to burn the country — torch 200 or 300 cars. I’m not joking,” Albag tells Channel 12 news in an interview. “I had no other option, what didn’t think?........

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