Ya'alon said that while Israel needs to make distinctions between Palestinian civilians and terrorists, it needs to take a hard-line approach to its war on terror.
"We should've hit Hamas hard when it flew the fire kites into our territory," said Ya'alon, who served as defense minister until 2016. "This was a violation of our sovereignty and it needed a tough response."The IDF maintained extra troops in the West Bank Sunday as it braced for additional violence, after three terror attacks in less than a week, including one on Friday in which a soldier was stabbed.On Saturday night the Palestinian who attacked the soldier by an army post next to the Beit El settlement turned himself into security forces. The soldier, Naveh Rotem from the Kfir Brigade, is in stable condition at Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center.
The army post is located just outside of the back entrance to Ramallah where the IDF has been operating this week in search of terrorists, with links to Hamas, who have been behind the recent terror wave.