Ya’alon on hospital raid: ‘We control the area’

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says that a daring commando raid in a Hebron hospital last night was a message to Palestinian attackers, who have increasingly been turning themselves in to the Palestinian Authority in order to avoid trial in Israel.

“Ultimately, they know that if the Palestinian Authority ever releases them in the future, we’ll put our hands on them,” he says in an interview with a local radio station, Radius 100FM.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon looks through binoculars during a visit at an army exercise of the Armored Corps, in the Golan Heights on October 22, 2015. (Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense)

Ya’alon confirms that the man arrested in the raid is suspected of carrying out a stabbing attack in the eastern Etzion Bloc, and claims that a Palestinian who was killed during the incident in the hospital – the alleged stabber’s cousin – was shot while “resisting.”

He says Israeli forces have for years been operating “every night” in the West Bank’s Area A, which is officially under Palestinian control.

“We control the area in terms of intelligence,” he says, “and when it’s necessary, operationally as well.”