MK Yaakov Litzman, head of ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will step down as health minister, Channel 12 reports.
Litzman is set to head the Housing Ministry.
Litzman has been the de facto head of the Health Ministry since 2009, except for a period between 2013 and 2015 when he was out of the government.
Channel 12 reported on Thursday that Litzman had told Netanyahu of various unspecified considerations for the move, which he asserted was not tied to recent public criticism of his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
He has been largely absent from the public eye over the two months of the coronavirus crisis (the past three weeks of which he spent being treated for a COVID-19 infection alongside his wife). Though he appeared in some earlier briefings, the face of the Health Ministry’s response has been its director-general, Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, leading some to speculate on the level of Litzman’s involvement in the ministry’s decision-making.
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