Lebanese Hizbollah militant leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus, the Lebanese group and Syrian government sources said.
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A senior Hizbollah leader and envoy who was once the group’s longest serving prisoner in an Israeli jail has been killed in a precision air strike in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
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.
Hezbollah on Sunday morning said that Kuntar was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and alleged that Israel may have coordinated the hit with Syrian rebel “terrorists” operating in the area.
Lebanon’s media outlet, Al-Manar reports, “Israeli warplanes struck the building with four long-range missiles, causing complete destruction of the building and partial damage to the surrounding structures”.
As the attack unfolded, the girl’s mother hid inside a crawl space inside their home and accidentally smothered their crying 2-year-old daughter, fearing Kantar would find them.
Israel has welcomed the killing of Kantar without taking credit.
“Since Qantar’s return, he has also played an operational role, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, in building up Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights”, it said.
Under the cover of night, the group broke into an apartment in the coastal town of Naharia, just 10 kilometres away from the Lebanese border, and kidnapped an Israeli man, Danny Haran, and his four-year-old daughter, Einat.
“We also have other things as well and will use them if necessary”, the Russian president said. Other Israeli officials, including military spokesmen, declined to comment. At the time, then-President Shimon Peres said Kuntar would neither be forgiven nor forgotten, and an unnamed defense official promised that justice would ultimately be served against the unrepentant terrorist.
Lieberman went on to say he had “no information” as to who carried out the airstrike that led to Kuntar’s death.
Israel said Kantar bashed the little girl’s head with a rifle butt until she died, but he maintained she had been killed in crossfire. Hezbollah’s ability to retaliate at this point would be more limited because of its involvement in Syria’s conflict. Among the Hezbollah members was Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative assassinated in 2008 in Damascus.
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported the “martyrdom” of Kantar in a “terrorist raid”.
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The National Defence Forces in Jaramana, which are part of a nationwide grouping of loyalist Syrian militias under the umbrella of the army, mourned Kuntar and one of its commanders on its Facebook page.
