Samir Kuntar: Iranian Proxy Leader Killed in Syria

Sirens wailed in northern Israel where the rockets hit, and the Israeli army said it “holds the Lebanese Army responsible for attacks emanating from its territory”. There are no reports of injuries on either side.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari on Sunday also condemned Israel’s killing of the senior Hezbollah member in Syria as “the most unsafe type of state terrorism” and said such measures on the part of the Israeli regime had turned into a trend.

Hezbollah played a key role in Kantar’s release after he had spent 30 years in Israeli jails, becoming known as the longest-serving Arab prisoner. Kantar was 16 at the time, and a member of the militant Palestine Liberation Front.

In Israel, he was notorious for the kidnapping and grisly killing of a father and his 4-year-old daughter in the coastal town of Nahariya. Tasnim also reported that Kuntar’s brother had confirmed his death on his Twitter account and had said the family “was honored to join families of martyrs”.

In a YouTube video featuring armed rebels from the Free Syrian Army, a spokesman denied Hezbollah’s claims that the “Zionist entity” was behind the attack, saying instead that they had managed to assassinate Kuntar and his companions.

The assassination of Samir Kuntar on December 20, 2015, marks a further stage in Israel’s struggle, so far successful, against Iran’s attempts to turn the Golan Heights into an active anti-Israeli front.

Kantar and four other prisoners received a triumphant red carpet welcome in Lebanon in 2008 when they were exchanged for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

Therefore, the piece concluded, an internal security breach occurred, allowing the Israelis to find Kuntar and kill him.

In Israel, officials did not say whether Israel was behind the hit, although some Israeli officials praised the news of Kantar’s death. The 1979 attack carried out by Samir Kuntar and three others cost all three lives.

Hezbollah has been active in Syria in backing up embattled President Bashar Assad, whom the FSA seeks to unseat. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the cross-border fire, which drew Israeli shelling. The two had been hiding in a closet and Haran Kaiser accidentally smothered Yael to stop Kantar from hearing her cries.

This article contains information from the Washington Post.