The Washington Post reports:
A notorious Lebanese militant leader, viewed by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist and deeply involved in the Syrian civil war, was killed late Saturday in an airstrike on the outskirts of Damascus.
Media from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, as well as from the Syrian government, blamed Israel for the attack that killed the militant, Samir Kuntar, and several others. Kuntar was released by Israel in 2008 after spending 30 years in jail for his part in the killing of three Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl and her father.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s al-Manar television confirmed Kuntar’s death, reporting early Sunday that four Israeli missiles had struck a residential building in Jaramana, just outside Damascus.
In Israel, officials did not deny or confirm whether Israel was behind the hit, although some Israeli officials praised the news of Kuntar’s death.
Kuntar received three life sentences for his part in a deadly attack on April 22, 1979, in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. Israel released him three decades later in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006, an event that sparked a three-week war with Israel.
As Neil D posted here in 2008:
It should also be remembered that Qantar (Samir Kuntar) was the trigger for the war, when Hezbollah raided Israel in order to obtain the dead bodies (at the time live human beings) that they have now used to secure his release. Here you can read the words of the mother of the child he murdered.
“It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband Danny and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Naharyia, a city on the northern coast of Israel. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists from Lebanon landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away.
“Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us. Desperately we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbour climb into a crawl space above our bedroom. I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out of the front door when the terrorists came crashing in. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael.
“I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space, so I kept my hand over her mouth. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
“The terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar. By the time we were rescued from the crawl space hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives I had smothered her.”
Danny, Einat and Yael Haran, זק״ל.
After his return to Lebanon, Qantar was personally welcomed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a celebration in Beirut.
Al Jazeera even threw a birthday party for him:
It’s no surprise that at the time of his death, Qantar was a Hezbollah operative in Syria working to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has no compunction about slaughtering children either.
I’ll give Clint Eastwood the final word on his demise.
Update: I’ll admit, this is funny.
Israeli Min Steinitz on Samir Kuntar killing: "Maybe Finland's intelligence services did it, I dunno." #haha https://t.co/C7zdp4fULP
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) December 20, 2015
Further update: ♫ Mem’ries, light the corners of my mind… ♫
