(Adnkronos) – The ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism (Utj) announced in a joint statement that they will support any agreement for the release of the hostages that is submitted to the Knesset. The Times of Israel reports this, recalling that the two parties recently left the government for not having obtained the exemption of the ultra-Orthodox from military conscription, even though Shas remained in the coalition in the Israeli Parliament, ensuring a slim majority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Despite the fact that we were forced to leave the government due to repeated violations of agreements by coalition partners, we remain fully committed to our brothers and sisters, the prisoners in the Gaza tunnels, both the living and the dead,” the two parties write in the statement, promising that their parliamentary factions “will provide support for any proposed hostage agreement that will be brought to the government and the Knesset”.
“There is no mitzvah more important than the ransom of prisoners,” they continue, using a Hebrew term translatable both as “commandment” and as “good deed”, emphasizing the moral duty to free the hostages in the hands of Hamas. “We ask the prime minister again to do everything possible to bring our kidnapped brothers and sisters, without exception, back to their families as soon as possible.”
