From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
UTJ MKs express sorrow over deaths of troops, don’t acknowledge 4 are ultra-Orthodox
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Two lawmakers from the United Torah Judaism party extend their condolences to the families of the five soldiers killed in Gaza overnight without noting that four of them were members of the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion.
“I ask on behalf of the committee to send our condolences to the bereaved families and send wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded. This is very painful,” says Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni, who represents the party’s Degel Hatorah faction.
In a separate statement, MK Moshe Roth, a member of UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, tells The Times of Israel that “together with the entire House of Israel, we mourn the death of the wonderful young men who gave their lives to protect us from a cruel enemy.”
“May God comfort the dear families and heal their heartbreak and there be no more woes in our land,” he adds.
UTJ does not issue an official statement commenting on the deaths of the soldiers from the Haredi unit. A spokesman for chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf says that a statement from the party will be released “in the coming hours.”
The Times of Israel Community.