Police used turned water cannons on hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters who were blocking roads in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Officers could be seen dragging the demonstrators physically out of the street as they attempted to block the path of the water cannon with their bodies.

The demonstrators, who were blocking traffic at the Sarei Yisrael-Jaffa junction in the west of the city, were rallying over the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student who refused to appear at a military recruitment post.

Mounted police were also deployed to clear the demonstrators from the area, while the commander of the Israeli army’s ground forces, Major General Yoel Strick, was also surrounded by protesters while driving through the area in his car and had to be rescued by police, according to local media.

Military service in Israel is compulsory for all men and women who are 18 years old, with a long-running exemption for the ultra-Orthodox being scrapped in 2014, while Israel’s high court has repeatedly thrown out other draft exemption laws.