Herzl Hajaj, father of Lieutenant Shir Hajaj who was murdered in a ramming attack in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem, expressed support for the remarks of Dvir Sorek's father, Yoav, who said the demolition of the homes of his son's murderers came too late and harmed Israeli deterrence.

"I am part of the bereaved families 'Choosing Life' forum and we have proposed a package of deterrence where a home demolition is one of twelve steps that should be taken. When you wait with the demolition for a month, two or three months, it is still the right move but you lose a large part of the deterrent effect," Hajaj told Arutz Sheva, calling on the state of Israel to act more firmly against terrorism.

"There should be a package of measures of deterrence that land on the terrorist immediately after the attack, so that potential terrorists realize that if they carry out an attack, they will be hit so hard that they and their family will return to the Stone Age. Today they receive salaries, pampering conditions. It’s sad to say it, but today it simply pays off to murder Jews."

Hajaj argues that Israel allows foreign parties to intervene in its affairs when it comes to terrorist activities. "The military and government systems are deterred by the Supreme Court and the EU which basically funds the terrorists' defense. The EU alone spends about 60 million shekels a year, with a third of that amount going to three organizations that defend terrorists in court. Israel does not want to deal with the EU and allows it to do what it wants in the country. This is crazy, I don't know any country in the world that is so wary of other countries. So the terrorists are protected and we are exposed and murdered in the streets.”

Hajaj said that the announcement by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett of a significant change in the position regarding the return of terrorists’ bodies is a positive one.

"To us, it is excellent that Defense Minister Bennett made the move. Meirav and I, after the attack in which Shir was murdered, decided that we were not prepared for the terrorist's family to receive the body. His mother should not be able to grieve after encouraging him to murder Jews. We contacted Minister [Gilad] Erdan in a letter, asking that the body not be returned, and he really took it to his attention and, together with [then-Defense Minister Avigdor] Liberman, decided not to return the body. Before then, Minister [Moshe] Ya'alon would return the body within a day or two,” he recalled.

"But then, money from Europe was again invested, they appealed to the Supreme Court and it was decided that no body should be kept. The state appealed, the Goldin family came into the picture, and the Supreme Court reversed the decision and ruled that Israel could only hang on to the bodies of Hamas terrorists. I hope that Minister Bennett succeeds and does not overturn his decision,” concluded Hajaj.