From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Father of slain soldier Itay Chen called ‘traitor’ outside polling station
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleStav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel
Ruby Chen, the father of Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, who was killed during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, is verbally accosted outside a polling station in Netanya while holding a photograph of his fallen son.
Video of the encounter shows Chen standing alongside another man wearing a sticker promoting Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad party, as a voter confronts Chen, repeatedly calling him a “traitor” and making obscene gestures toward him.
Chen’s son, a 19-year-old Israeli-American soldier, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, and his body was taken captive to Gaza before being returned by Hamas on November 4, 2025.
אביו השכול של איתי חן מגלה שהוא בוגד, מחוץ לקלפי בנתניה pic.twitter.com/TBwYyT2KBp
— Ben Caspit בן כספית (@BenCaspit) October 27, 2026
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