Former deputy chief of staff retired Gen. Uzi Dayan, now chairman of the National Lottery, discussed in an interview with Arutz Sheva similar operations involving the elimination of Samir Kuntar on Sunday.
Early on he stressed that it would not be correct for Israel to deny nor take responsibility for this attack, "so we can bless the operation but not take responsibility, because otherwise we will have to respond on everything that will happen in the Middle East."
When asked if anyone, besides Israel, could be involved in Kuntar’s elimination, he pointed out that the Syrian rebels had such an interest and reminded that Kuntar "had many enemies."
It should be noted that the Syrian reports indicate that Syrian rebels were possibly assisting in practical intelligence and Israeli forces carried out the assassination.
"Kuntar is a murderer whose day has come,” said Dayan. “He was harmful and was planning operations that would be damaging to the relations between Israel and the Druze”
Dayan was asked if intelligence gathering is done only by positioning systems or by people who cling to their subjects. Dayan, careful of of disclosing information and methods of operation, said cautiously, "It's a lot of things, including things that you did not mention. It can be electronic, it can be human, it can information received by someone who did not even know he transmitted the information. There are different options."
In regards to timing, Dayan said, “Every opportunity to eliminate a terrorist is the right time. Sometimes if you have an opportunity, it may not return and another terrorist attack will take place and we will regret the fact that we didn’t take our chance. A murderer like Kantar has it coming to him every day. I think every day Kuntar lived was a wasted day, until today."
And what of other senior Hezbollah members, do they need to understand that they are part of Israel’s targets? Dayan replied by saying that there is no hierarchy of terrorist and “anyone who harms Israelis has blood on his head.”
Dayan stated that Kuntar's immediate return to terror “proves very clearly not to release murderers," believing that "the released criminals act again, and many of them do not pay the price. We should not release murderers unless we have no other choice.”