3 rockets from Lebanon hit northern Israel, no injuries

Israel was accused by Hezbollah militant group from Lebanon and by the government of Syria for the attack that killed Samir Kantar and others. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said two Israeli warplanes that violated Syrian airspace fired four long-range missiles at a residential building. Nevertheless Hezbollah did not immediately confirm or announce Kuntar being killed or injured in the bombing, only to accuse Israel later on Sunday.

The airstrike reportedly targeted an apartment building in which Kuntar had been staying along with a number of other Hezbollah fighters.

His death in Syria late Saturday in the Al-Homsi district outside Damascus has received widespread media coverage in Israel, with several newspapers publishing articles posing the question as to when and how Hezbollah would retaliate.

Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister for infrastructure, would not comment on the reports but said Kuntar was “no small villain” and he doubted “anyone would be sorry” if accounts of his demise were accurate.

Qantar was from minority Druze community and brutality of the attack more than three decades ago made him the most notorious terrorists for Israel and the assault became a permanent momory for Israelis.

As a teenager, Kantar joined a Palestinian militant group known as the “Palestine Liberation Front” at the height of Palestinian-Israeli violence in the Middle East and at a time when most Palestinian groups were based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah on Sunday morning confirmed that Kuntar was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and alleged that Israel may have coordinated the hit with Syrian rebel groups operating in the area.

The Israeli military said the three rockets exploded in an open territory in Western Galilee Sunday, with no damages or injuries reported.

In 2008, Kuntar was released after 29 years in an Israeli prison in an exchange for the bodies of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

A high-profile member of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, who had spent years in Israeli prisons, has been killed in Syria in a suspected Israeli air strike, according to Hezbollah.

The release of Kuntar and other prisoners was declared a national holiday in Lebanon and the group was greeted by the country’s president and prime minister.

He was sentenced to five life terms plus 47 years for murdering Danny Haran, his four-year-old daughter Einat, and an Israeli policeman. The child’s mother, who took refuge in a crawlspace, accidentally smothered her other daughter trying to silence her cries, Israel has said. He shot the father in the head and, according to Israel, smashed the young girl’s head on rocks, killing her. Kuntar disputes the Israeli version of events, saying she was killed in crossfire. Kantar had always denied killing the girl or her father.

In January, an Israeli missile strike killed a top Hezbollah commander and Iranian general while the pair were on a reconnaissance mission in the Quneitra area of southern Syria.