Defense minister Bennett: We will not return bodies of dead terrorists

“We are holding the bodies of terrorists and we capture Hamas members who cross the border, in order to increase the pain of the other side,” said Defense Minister Naftali Bennett.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

In an interview with Israel’s 103 FM Radio on Wednesday, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett made it clear that he will not hand back the bodies of dead terrorists to their families.

“We are holding the bodies of terrorists and we capture Hamas members who cross the border, in order to increase the pain of the other side. That’s part of the change that I started,” he said.

Commenting on his decision to ease up restrictions on Gaza following a commitment by Hamas to stop launching incendiary balloons into Israel, Bennett said he is implementing a system of “reward and punishment.”

“When there is quiet there are merchants, imports and exports, a fishing zone, and we don’t attack them,” he said. “When there are [explosive] balloons we close it all and bomb their bases and factories for rocket production. I personally approve every target and there are no discussions, I promise you.”

Bennett said that his main concern right now is to eliminate the Iranian threat.

“The greatest change that’s happening now is that we’re toning down the tactical wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, so that we can turn most of our energy to Iran itself,” Bennett said.

“Instead of fighting with Hezbollah and Hamas, we’re turning our military, economic, and diplomatic efforts to weakening Iran, because it’s the head of the snake. The battle between the wars is turning offensive, to remove the Iranians from Syria. Iran is becoming weaker and maybe we can prevent a third war in Lebanon,” he added.

Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction, placing its troops in Syria, Israel’s northern neighbor, and supporting proxy forces like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.