Hospital bed
Hospital bediStock

During Israel's last municipal election on October 30th, Yisrael Meir Elyashiv, a yeshiva student affiliated with the radical Yerushalmi Faction movement, was arrested in Modi'in Illit after a confrontation with police. He was then handed over to military police after a background check revealed that Elyashiv was wanted after he failed to respond to draft orders. As of then, the student was detained in the military Prison 4 in Tzrifin, in central Israel.

Elyashiv's arrest prompted protests by the Yerushalmi Faction, which encourages its members not to cooperate with IDF draft boards, even for the purposes of requesting draft deferments as yeshiva students.

After being taken into custody, Elyashiv was taken to a Jerusalem hospital for medical treatment. Sometime during his hospital visit, he disappeared from the ward.

According to a report by Behadrei Haredim, Elyashiv may not have understood that he was not permitted to leave the hospital. It seems that he may have thought that his hospitalization was considered "vacation days" as he was not being guarded at the time.

Hospital officials told the family that they were working to locate the missing student and make it clear that he was to return to the hospital until he is formally released by the medical staff.