Israeli missiles kill renowned Lebanese resistance fighter Samir Kuntar in Syria

He was detained as a teenager and spent 29 years in an Israeli prison, accused of killing four people in 1979 raid in the northern town of Nayariya, Israel.

Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze, was killed in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, Hezbollah said in a statement.

Bassam wrote, “With pride we mourn the martyrdom of the leader Samir Qantar and we are honored to join families of martyrs”.

After serving a three-decade sentence, Kantar was freed by Israel in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap, following which he became a prominent Hezbollah figure.

Ynet notes that in recent years Kantar has served a key role in Hezbollah efforts in the Golan Heights with the aim of one day launching attacks against Israel from there.

Jacky Hugi, Arab affairs editor for Israel’s Army Radio, said in a commentary that if Israel did deliberately kill Qantar, it would have been to foil a suspected threat that he posed rather than as “payback” for the 1979 cross-border raid. The release was done after an exchange for two bodies of Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah was accorded.

Israel has previously said it would engage in the Syria conflict for two reasons only: to stop the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to disrupt preparations for attacks on Israel.

Earlier Sunday, alert sirens went off near the city of Nahariya as three rockets landed in northern Israel, according to the IDF.

On Sunday night, a barrage of three rockets was sacked into Israel from Lebanon, several hours after a top Lebanese militant was killed in Syria. The Israeli military declined to comment on the accusation.

The widow said Kantar’s killing was a “historic justice”.

Israeli officials did not confirm or deny their involvement in the act, but celebrated his death.

“Israeli artillery shells struck several locations inside southern Lebanon in response to the launch of rockets by an unknown group towards Israel”, the source, who preferred anonymity, told Anadolu Agency. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

In January, an Israeli strike in Syria killed six members of Hezbollah, including a commander and the son of the group’s late military leader Imad Moughniyah in the province of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which injured nobody.

David’s Sling is meant to counter medium-range missiles possessed by enemies throughout the region, most notably the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.