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Revision as of 14:46, 24 July 2006 by Marokwitz (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Samir Kuntar (Arabic سمير القنطار) (born July 20, 1962 in Aabey, Lebanon), is a Lebanese who participated in a terrorist attack on Israeli civilians in 1979. He has been held in Israeli jails under a four-times-life sentence since his conviction in 1979 on charges of murder and terrorism, for killing 2 Israeli civilians and two Israeli policemen.
Attack into Israel from Southern Lebanon
On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar led a unit of four infiltrators who entered Israeli waters from Lebanon and beached their watercraft in the coastal town of Nahariya. The four killed a policeman who ran across them and were able to break into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. The unit took 28-year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four-year-old daughter Einat. Kuntar killed both the father and the four-year-old girl during the ensuing shootout. The wife, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in the attic with her two-year-old daughter Yael, but while trying desperately to keep the girl quiet, ended up suffocating her.
Shootout and capture by Israel
After holding to the hostages, a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Samir Kuntar shot and killed the father at close range in front of his daughter, and killed the four-year-old girl by hitting her with the butt of his rifle against a rock, crushing her skull. A policeman and two of Samir Kuntar's unit were also killed. Kuntar and the fourth participant in the shootout were captured. The latter, Ahmed Abarrass, was freed by Israel in the 1986 Ahmed Jibril prisoner deal in return for three Israeli soldiers.
Proposed exchange for Ron Arad
In 2003 Israel agreed to relase around 400 prisoners in exchange for businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum 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 as well, but only when Hezbollah provided "solid evidence" as to the fate of Ron Arad, an air force navigator missing in Lebanon since 1986.
Inspired by the prisoner swap Hamas vowed, a few days later, that they would also abduct Israeli soldiers to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners. Hassan Nasrallah simultaneously told his supporters that Hezbollah would continue to kidnap Israelis until "not a single prisoner" remained inside Israeli jails
Since Hezbollah never provided any solid information about Arad, Israel continues to hold Kuntar.
External links
- Israel's Deadly Prisoner Deal (Front Page magazine)
- The murder, described by Smadar Haran -the only survivor (Washington Post article: "The World Should Know What He Did to My Family")
- Kidnapping of Israeli soldiers from Israel by Hezbollah to release Samir Kuntar (Monsters and Critics blog)
- "Hizballah Wants Israel to Free Child-Killer" (Cybercast News Service, July 18, 2006)
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- "Nasrallah: no prisoner swap without Samir Kuntar". Canadian Jewish News. November 13, 2003.
- "Israel backs deal with Hizbullah to swap prisoners". The Guardian. November 10, 2003.
- "Israel agrees to free prisoners in secret deal with Hizbullah". The Irish Times. January 26, 2004.
- "Arad could alter release criteria". The Jerusalem Posts. January 27, 2004.
- "ROUNDUP: Hamas, Hezbollah vow to abduct more Israeli soldiers". Deutsche Presse-Agentur. January 30, 2004.