Lebanese militant Samir Qantar killed in Israeli raid, say Hizbollah

An Israeli air raid has killed a senior figure in the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar, near the Syrian capital, the group said.

Syrian state television, quoting official sources, said Kantar was killed in a “terror attack”, without elaborating on who was behind the assault.

Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the war five years ago, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for Hizbollah, Israel’s long-time foe in neighbouring Lebanon.

Following the attack, Quntar’s brother wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that his brother was a martyr without giving more details about his death. Meanwhile, Israeli lawmakers praised the killing of Kuntar in Damascus along with eight others, which was confirmed by Hezbollah, but stopped short of confirming the airstrike was carried out by the Israeli Air Force.

Kantar, who had earned the title of longest-serving Arab prisoner in Israel, was still a teenager when he and three other members of the Palestine Liberation Front infiltrated the Israeli village of Nahariya by sea from Lebanon.

The group’s Al-Manar TV says Sunday that Kantar was killed in the strike on a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana. He denies this, saying the girl was killed in the crossfire.

Haran’s wife, Smadar, accidentally suffocated their two-year-old daughter Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place.

His release in 2008 in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006 was highly controversial. According to other reports, the attack was launched by an unnamed terrorist group.

Soon afterward, Kantar, a Druze, joined Hezbollah, his role growing quietly within the group’s ranks particularly following the group’s involvement in the civil war in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces.