Hezbollah vows revenge on Israel after death of Kuntar

Terrorist group Hezbollah vowed Monday to retaliate for the killing of notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar in what it claims was an Israeli air strike in Syria.

At Kuntar's funeral the same day, thousands of people chanted "death to Israel" as Hezbollah fighters in military uniforms carried the coffin, wrapped in the group's yellow flag, to a Shiite Muslim cemetery in its south Beirut stronghold.


Credit:Reuters

"We have no doubt or question that Israel assassinated Samir Kuntar, its planes fired precision missiles on a residential apartment [he was in]," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech aired on the group's Al-Manar television network.

"Samir is one of us, a commander of our resistance and it is our right to retaliate for his assassination anywhere, anytime and any way we see fit," Nasrallah said. "We will exercise this right, God willing. Everyone should bear this mind."

A number of Syrians were also killed in the attack, he said.

Kuntar was jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 terrorist attack that killed four Israelis. During the attack Kuntar and two others attempted to abduct the Haran family in Nahariya, an attempt that turned into a gun battle with Israeli security forces. Kuntar shot and killed the father, Danny Haran, 31, and used the butt of his rifle to bludgeon the head of Haran's daughter, 4-year-old Einat. He also killed an Israeli policeman, Eliyahu Shahar.

Haran's younger daughter, then-2-year-old Yael, suffocated to death when her mother tried to keep her quiet while they hid from the terrorists. Kuntar was convicted of three counts of murder and of indirectly causing the death of Yael Haran.

Kuntar was released from Israeli jail as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah in 2008. While many in Israel were outraged at his release, in Lebanon he received a hero's welcome.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind Kuntar's assassination.

"If the Israelis think that by killing Samir Kuntar they have settled an account then they are very mistaken because they know, and will come to know, that they have instead opened several more," Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official, said at the funeral.

During his televised speech, Nasrallah said that American efforts to label Hezbollah as a "'criminal organization' that is involved in money laundering, drug dealing and human trafficking," are "certainly false claims that have nothing to do with reality."

He blamed the U.S. for trying defame the organization and attempting to "build a barrier between the Lebanese youth and Hezbollah."

He went on to state that Israel was humiliated when the International Atomic Energy Agency closed the investigation into Iran's nuclear program, failing to find proof of weapons development.

Meanwhile, along with the funeral on Monday, memorial ceremonies were held in Kuntar's honor in Druze communities in northern Quneitra in the Syrian Golan and in some villages in southern Lebanon.

Arab and Lebanese media reported extensively on Kuntar's life and terror history. He joined the Palestine Liberation Front at 16, the same year he carried out the gruesome attack in Israel.

In the moments prior to his assassination, Kuntar was with his deputy Farhan al-Shaalan and his bodyguard, both reportedly killed in the strike, in his apartment in Syria, after spending the week in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's civil war.

Both the Free Syrian Army and another Syrian rebel group have claimed responsibility for the assassination.

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