Some 50 Chabad Hassidim were detained upon their arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport from New York on Tuesday morning on suspicion of draft evasion.
The Hassidim had returned from a year of studying abroad in New York's 770 World Headquarters.
The IDF's Military Police, which had advance notice of their arrival, confiscated the passports of several youths and detained a large number of draft evaders.
Dozens of the detained have reportedly already been released, while a number of others have been transferred into military custody.
Those who remained in custody were loaded onto a bus and transported to the IDF recruitment center at Tel Hashomer to face trial.
Detainees to be given option to enlist or go to military prison
According to Army Radio, detainees were given the option to immediately enlist at the recruitment center in exchange for a suspended sentence. Those who refuse will be tried and sent to military prison.
The detainees have since been scheduled to stand trial for desertion, as none of them have complied with the ultimatum to enlist.
The IDF has prepared for the likelihood of protests by haredi factions around the Tel Hashomer base and Kfar Yona prison, having alerted the Israel Police in expectation of mass demonstrations.
IDF soldiers and haredim have clashed multiple times this year at protests outside of military prisons.
Most recently, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox children from Breslov schools were brought to protest outside Military Prison 10 following the arrest of draft dodgers at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Haredi politicians decry arrests: 'The arrests do not help recruit haredim into the military'
Following the incident, the haredi party Shas issued a statement blaming the arrests on "the attorney-general's blatant and unprecedented political interference in the election campaign through issuing orders for the violent arrests of yeshiva students, despite the temporary law enacted to prevent political interference during the election period."
"The Shas movement strongly condemns the arrest of Chabad Hasidic yeshiva students at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning. Consequently, Shas faction chairman and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member MK Yinon Azoulay, acting on the instructions of Shas chairman Rabbi Arye Deri, is working with senior IDF officials to demand the students' immediate release, without any further delay."
Additionally, Haredi Public Party leader Moti Leitner called the incident "shocking," and said the arrests would not help raise recruitment.
"The arrests do not help recruit haredim into the military. They constitute a devastating blow. Law enforcement agencies must act with sound judgment in this sensitive situation," he stated.
"The disgrace and humiliation of yeshiva students are on the hands of Deri and Goldknopf, who worked in every possible way to sabotage plans to integrate haredim into the IDF, including the Chabad arrangement, which was intended to allow yeshiva students to travel abroad for a year of study and serve upon their return to Israel, as well as obstructing legislation we had intended to use to regulate the status of yeshiva students," Leitner added.