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Former Shin Bet deputy director blasts ‘weak’ response to Islamic Jihad: We should have killed 2,500

“Israel and the IDF should put an end to this ridiculous ordeal in which civilians cannot sleep at night,” says the former Shin Bet deputy director.

By World Israel News Staff 

A former deputy director of the Israeli Shin Bet security agency is charging that Israel has done an incomplete job in its attacks on the Gaza Strip over the past few days.

Interviewed on Radio 103FM, Yitzchak Ilan argued that “anyone who shoots rockets at civilians is a war criminal and should be treated in kind. Either he should be arrested and spend a long time in jail or he should be eliminated.”

He dismissed the Israeli assassination of Islamic Jihad’s Baha Abu Al Ata as the killing of “a medium-level commander,” even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi described him as a terror mastermind and Palestinian sources have also cited Abu Al Ata’s leading role in attacks on Israel.

Asked by the radio interviewer about what was said to be the killing by Israel of 25 Islamic Jihad members during Tuesday and Wednesday’s fighting, the former Shin Bet deputy director brushed aside its significance by snapping: “2,500 members should have been killed; that would have been an appropriate response.”

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“Israel and the IDF should put an end to this ridiculous ordeal in which civilians cannot sleep at night,” he said.

Ilan argued that Gaza could be captured in the same way that Israel “cleared” Judea and Samaria of terrorists when he was a regional commander during an Israeli operation there in 2002, when Israel had been inundated with massive deadly attacks during what was known as the ‘Second Intifada’ uprising by Palestinian terrorists.

Asked by Radio 103FM about the “cost” of the ongoing plight suffered by southern Israel residents as a result of the continuing violence from the Gaza Strip, Ilan replied: “Israel pays a catastrophic price for these rounds of violence. Traumatized children grow up in this situation.”

He also criticized Netanyahu’s declaration that “he who strikes at us, we will strike at him.”

“That means we wait until we are attacked to respond,” the former senior Shin Bet official countered. “The chief of staff appears on TV saying we do not want an escalation. Who asked you?” Ilan added.