Ya’alon says Dawabsha killers still out of reach

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says Israel knows which organization is behind the torching of the Dawabsha home in July, in which the two parents and two-year-old Ali Dawabsha were killed, but cannot pinpoint the specific perpetrators.

“We know the group responsible for the attack, but we still don’t know the names of the attackers,” he says, according to Channel 2. The defense minister says Israel has taken steps — including detaining members of the group without trial and issuing restraining orders — to thwart further attacks.

“This is a very radical group of Jews who want a regime [governed by] Jewish law, and decided to do something that would not only harm Palestinian property, but people,” he says. “The steps we took prevented additional attacks against Arabs.”

The defense minister also says Israel is fairly certain the Russian passenger jet was downed by a bomb.

“We aren’t involved in the investigation, but from our understanding of the case, it seems that a bomb exploded inside the plane,” he says. Ya’alon won’t comment on the CNN report that Israel handed over intelligence on the Sinai crash to the US and UK.