Samir Kuntar

On 20 December, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi described the incident as a terrorist operation "plotted beforehand," noting that Syrian authorities were carrying out an investigation to find out how the operation happened. Hezbollah claimed that the building was destroyed by an air-to-surface missile launched by Israeli Air Force jets. Hezbollah alleged that two Israeli jets penetrated Syrian airspace. Hezbollah vowed revenge on Israel after the attack. On December 21, the Free Syrian Army released a video clip claiming responsibility for killing Kuntar and accusing Hezbollah of blaming Israel for propaganda purposes. In late February 2016, a remark by Israeli politician Omer Bar-Lev was interpreted as an admission that Israel was responsible for Kuntar's assassination.

On 19 December 2015, Kuntar was killed by an explosion in the outskirts of Damascus. According to official Syrian sources, Kuntar was killed by "terrorist rocket attack". On 20 December 2015, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi described the incident as a terrorist operation "plotted beforehand", noting that Syrian authorities were carrying out an investigation to find out how the operation happened. Hezbollah claimed that the building was destroyed by an air-to-surface missile launched by Israeli Air Force jets. On 21 December, the Free Syrian Army released a video clip claiming responsibility for killing Kuntar.

In July 2015, it was claimed that Kuntar was targeted and possibly killed in an alleged Israeli drone strike upon his automobile in the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights town of Hader, along with members of Hezbollah and the Syrian National Defence Forces.

On 19 December 2015, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, Kuntar was killed by an explosion destroying a six-story residential building in Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus. The explosion also killed eight Syrian nationals, among them Hezbollah field commanders, and injured a number of other people. According to official Syrian sources, Kuntar was killed by "rocket attack."

We turned Kuntar into God-knows-what – the murderer of Danny Haran and his daughter, Einat. The man who smashed in the girl's head. That's nonsense. A story. A fairy tale. He told me he didn't do it and I believe him. I investigated the event ... and in my opinion there is support for the fact that they were killed by fire from the Israeli rescue forces. You can accuse him all you like, but it was obviously the rescue forces that opened fire.

After his release, Kuntar made a number of statements on certain elements of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

In March 2009 he married Zeineb Barjawi, the daughter of a prominent Lebanese Shia family.

Both Kuntar and al-Abras were convicted of murdering five people, two policemen and three members of the Haran family. They were sentenced to five life sentences, and an additional forty-seven years for injuries inflicted. The court file containing the evidence submitted and the court proceedings was declared top secret and no one, with the exception of the pardons committee, was allowed to access the file for almost 30 years. A few days before Kuntar's expected release in the 2008 Israel–Hezbollah prisoner exchange, Yedioth Ahronoth was finally given access to Court File No. 578/79, with two notable exceptions.

On 26 May 2008, Israeli sources announced that Samir Kuntar was among those who would be exchanged for the bodies of two reservists, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured by Hezbollah in the cross-border raid that sparked the 2006 Lebanon War. On 29 June 2008 the Israeli cabinet approved the prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel which would involve the release of Kuntar despite intelligence stating that the two soldiers were almost certainly dead. Kuntar and four other prisoners released as part of the deal were the last of the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli custody. Also included in the deal was the release of the remains of other Lebanese from all other previous wars and, after a suitable interval, dozens of Palestinian prisoners.

On 16 July 2008, Hezbollah transferred coffins containing the remains of captured Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in exchange for Kuntar and four Hezbollah members taken prisoner during the 2006 Lebanon War.

On 17 July 2008, Kuntar visited the tomb of Imad Mughniyeh. Later that day, a homecoming function was organized in Kuntar's native village of Aabey, southeast of Beirut. The ceremony was addressed by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and the Labour Minister and Hezbollah official, Mohammad Fneish.

On 19 July 2008, Al Jazeera TV broadcast a program from Lebanon about Kuntar's welcoming festivities. In it, the head of Al Jazeera's Beirut office, Ghassan bin Jiddo, praised Kuntar, calling him a "pan-Arab hero", and organized a birthday party for him. In response, Israel's Government Press Office (GPO) threatened to boycott the satellite channel unless it apologized. A few days later, Al Jazeera's director general, Khanfar Wadah, issued a statement admitting parts of the program had violated the station's Code of Ethics, and ordered the channel's programming director to try to prevent a recurrence.

On 24 November 2008, Kuntar visited Syria, where he met with President Bashar Assad. Assad awarded him the Syrian Order of Merit. Kuntar also visited Druze communities in the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights. At the ceasefire line with Israel, he used the opportunity to express solidarity with the Druze community in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights: "President Bashar Assad has promised me that he will help you," Kuntar said. "I say to you, soon president Assad will fly the Syrian flag over the Golan."

In an interview with Al-Jadid TV, which aired on 18 July 2008 (as translated by the MEMRI), Kuntar stated that: "There is a disease in this region called "the state of Israel," which we refer to as "the plundering entity." If we do not put an end to this disease, it will follow us, even if we flee to the end of the world. So it's better to get rid of it." In a subsequent interview, Kuntar stated that "and God willing, I will get the chance to kill more Israelis."

In an interview with the Agence France-Presse in October 2008, Kuntar stated that "The resistance will end only when the Zionist entity disappears." He also claimed that Israel is preparing to attack Lebanon again and that "Israel is going to suffer great losses. The idea that Israel is an invincible, secure state has become a myth."

In an interview with Al-Jazeera TV and Al-Jadid/New TV, which aired on 26 July 2008 (as translated by the MEMRI), Kuntar stated that: "To be honest, our operation had both civilian and military targets. Today, tomorrow, and the next day – our targets are always. ... There are no civilian targets – it's "civilian" in quotation marks. The Zionists themselves define the Israeli as a soldier who is on leave for 11 months every year."

In an interview with Al-Jazeera TV and Al-Jadid/New TV, which aired on 26 July 2008 (as translated by the MEMRI), Kuntar was asked how he viewed the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Kuntar stated that: "[The assassination of Sadat was] a most wonderful operation – to the point that all the prisoners cheered together when Sadat was assassinated. This man symbolized treason and apostasy. Ever since Camp David. ... Look at the history – Camp David, the 1982 invasion, and then the strike against Iraq. ... All the catastrophes that befell the Arab world began with Camp David. It was a wonderful historical moment, which I hope will recur in similar cases."

In 2006, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and UN envoy Terje Rød-Larsen proposed a deal in which Kuntar and all other Lebanese prisoners would be released on condition that Syria declared Shebaa farms as Lebanese territory, the Lebanese deployed troops on the country's southern border with Israel, Israel withdrew from Shebaa farms and the Israeli air force stopped flying over Lebanon, Israeli occupation ended, though Hezbollah was not disarmed and Hezbollah was not removed from the border areas.

In 2003, Israel agreed to release around 400 prisoners in exchange for businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers held by Hezbollah since 2000. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah refused to accept the deal unless it included Samir Kuntar. "Hezbollah's conditions have become clear and defined, and we are sticking to them in all circumstances", Nasrallah declared in his statement.

Israel then agreed to release Samir Kuntar on condition that Hezbollah provided "solid evidence" as to the fate of Ron Arad, an air force navigator missing in Lebanon since 1986.

Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place, from where she saw Danny and Einat being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. During the shoot-out a second policeman and another of Kuntar's accomplices were killed. Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmad Assad al-Abras, were injured and captured. al-Abras was freed by Israel in the prisoner exchange of May 1985.

In Israel, Kuntar is considered the perpetrator of one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in the country's history. On 22 April 1979, at the age of 16, Kuntar participated in the killing of an Israeli policeman and the attempted kidnapping of an Israeli family in Nahariya that resulted in the deaths of four Israelis and two of his fellow kidnappers.

On 22 April 1979, at the age of 16, Samir Kuntar led a group of four PLF militants who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group members included Abdel Majeed Aslan (born 1955), Muhanna Salim Al-Muayyad (born 1960) and Ahmad al-Abras (born 1949). They all belonged to the PLF under the leadership of Abu Abbas. The group departed from the Tyre seashore in Southern Lebanon using a 55-hp motorized rubber boat with an 88 km/h speed. The goal of the operation was to attack Nahariya, 10 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. They named it "Operation Nasser".

On 31 January 1978 Samir Kuntar and three additional militants from his organization attempted to hijack an Israeli bus running the line between Beit She'an and Tiberias in order to demand the release of militants imprisoned in Israel. They traveled to Jordan and attempted to cross the Jordan river into Israel by swimming. However, before crossing, they were arrested by the Jordanian intelligence. Kuntar spent 11 months in Jordanian prison and was released in December 1978. He was banned from entering Jordan for three years.

During his imprisonment, Kuntar married Kifah Kayyal (born in 1963), an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of militant prisoners. They later divorced. While they were married, she received a monthly stipend from the Israeli government, an entitlement due to her status as a wife of a prisoner. Kayyal is an Israeli citizen of Palestinian origin from Acre, now residing in Ramallah, who was then serving a life sentence for her activities in the Palestine Liberation Front. Kuntar was allowed conjugal visits with his wife while in prison. They had no children.

Samir Kuntar (Arabic: سمير القنطار ‎, also transcribed Sameer, Kantar, Quntar, Qantar; 20 July 1962 – 19 December 2015) was a Lebanese Druze member of the Palestine Liberation Front and Hezbollah. He was convicted of terrorism and murder by an Israeli court. After his release from prison as part of the 2008 Israel–Hezbollah prisoner exchange, he received Syria's highest medal, honored by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US government.