Samir Kuntar

File:Samir kuntar.jpg

Samir Kuntar

Samir Kuntar (Arabic: سمير القنطار, also transcribed Sameer, Kantar, Quntar, Qantar) (born July 20, 1962 in Aabey, Lebanon), is a Lebanese Druze who belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front. He participated in an attack on an Israeli family in 1979, and was convicted later that year of murdering three Israelis: a 28 year-old man, his 4-year-old daughter, and an Israeli policeman. The man's 2 year-old daughter suffocated as her mother tried to quiet her crying. Kuntar received four life imprisonment sentences and has been in Israeli prisons ever since.

Attack into Israel from Southern Lebanon

File:Einat5.JPG

Image of the Haran family [from left to right] Einat, Danny, and Yael one week before they were murdered.

On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar led a militant group of four who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group members were Abdel Majeed Asslan born in 1955, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed born in 1960 and Ahmed AlAbras born in 1949. They all belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front under the leadership of Abu Abbas. The group departed from the seashore of Tyre in Southern Lebanon using a 55 horse-powered 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. The group called their operation the Nasser Operation.

Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya. The four murdered a policeman who came across them. The group then entered a high building, 61 Jabotinsky Street, where they parted into two groups. One group broke into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. The militants took 28 year old Danny Haran hostage along with his four-year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two-year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor.

Shootout and capture by Israel

After taking the hostages, Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Samir Kuntar shot the father, Danny, at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he smashed the head of Einat, the four-year-old girl, on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle.

Back in the crawl space, two-year-old Yael Haran was accidentally suffocated to death by her mother's attempts to quiet her whimpering from revealing their hideout, so that they would not be found by Kuntar's group.

A policeman and two of Samir Kuntar's unit were also killed in the shootout on the beach; Kuntar and the fourth militant were captured. The latter, Ahmed AlAbras, was freed by Israel in the Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange deal of May 1985 (1,150 Arab prisoners were exchanged for three Israeli prisoners of war held in Lebanon), but Kuntar was not included in the deal.

Several months later, the Palestinian Liberation Front seized the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, demanding that Israel release Kuntar, along with 50 other Palestinian militants, though Kuntar was the only prisoner specifically named. The hijackers killed a wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer during this raid and had his body and wheelchair thrown overboard.

Details of the Attack

According to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat are the sight of them being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. She could hear from her closet space Danny telling Einat, "Don't be scared, my baby, it will be alright" and Einat replied to him in her little voice, "Dad, where is Mommy? I want Mommy." Smadar's last memory of her 2-year-old daughter, Yael, was when her daughter was taken to the apartment hiding space. Right before Yael had her mouth covered by her mother, she asked her mother "Where is my little pacifier." There was no time to search for the pacifier. Minutes later Smadar covered Yael's mouth to keep her from revealing the hiding space. Smadar soon felt her daughter's tongue licks and lip sucking on the palm of her hand. She didn't know what to make of it at first but hours later was told by doctors and paramedics that the reason Yael was licking her palm while she covered her mouth was because she was gasping for air.

In 1979, the Israeli newspaper Maariv newpaper described the attack as follows: After drowning Danny in the sea in front of Einat (all this taking place as Ahmed Al-Brass, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, and Abdel Majeed Asslan stood and served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar) Kuntar then turned his attention towards the 4-year old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. Kuntar, then laid her head on a rock before beating her on the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead.

According to Kuntar's former cellmate Yasser Hanjar, Kuntar "never expressed remorse, but maintains a different version [of the events] than the Israeli one".

Support for Samir Kuntar

Although Kuntar has allegedly admitted his complicity in the murders, he has many supporters in Lebanon who maintain that he is innocent. Other supporters, alternately, claim that the Harans (including the four year-old child) were legitimate targets and consider Kuntar to be a political prisoner. During his imprisonment, Kuntar married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of militant prisoners, but divorced her. 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. Also during his imprisonment Kuntar graduated from the Open University of Israel in social and political science.

Proposed exchange for Ron Arad

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.

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.

The Lebanon Plan

In 2006 Samir Kuntar became part of a more elaborate peace plan promoted by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and UN envoy Terje Rød-Larsen. It included six steps:

1. The UN marks the boundary between Lebanon and Syria.
2. Syria publicly declares that the Shebaa farms are Lebanese territory.
3. The Lebanese Army takes up positions on its southern border with Israel.
4. Israel withdraws from Shebaa Farms and hands them over to Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force stops flying over Lebanese territory.
5. Siniora formally announces the end of Israeli occupation, and all militias, including Hezbollah, are disarmed.
6. Everything possible is done to investigate the fate of Ron Arad. Israel frees Samir Kuntar and all other Lebanese prisoners. Hezbollah leaves the border area.

Hezbollah abducts Israeli soldiers

Main article: Zar'it-Shtula incident

On July 12 2006 Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol, killed eight soldiers, and kidnapped two others, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War. The kidnapped soldiers were meant to be released in exchange for Samir Kuntar. In subsequent interviews on Al-Manar TV station Dr Mohamad Jawad Khalifeh, the Lebanese Minster of Health, congratulated Hezbollah for "its great actions" and said that "Lebanon has the right to regain its prisoners and liberate them". Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese Parliament, stated his opinion that "particularly at this basic stage in the history of the homeland and the nation, this government should have expressed solidarity with its people and let Samir Quntar feel that he is a Lebanese par excellence."

Kuntar slated to be released

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

Kuntar wrote a letter to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowing to continue engaging in Jihad after his release. The letter was published in the Palestinian Authority's official daily newspaper, al-Hayat al-Jadida. The letter states: "I give you my promise and oath that my only place will be in the fighting front soaked with the sweat of your giving and with the blood of the shahids, the dearest people, and that I will continue your way until we reach a full victory. I send my best wishes and promise of renewed loyalty to you, sir, and to all the Jihad fighters."

See also

• Lebanese prisoners in Israel

External links

• http://www.samirkuntar.org/ Samir Kuntar's family website
• http://web.archive.org/web/20070817040847/http://www.samirkuntar.org/ Snapshot of Samir Kuntar family website archive on August 17, 2007
• Plot to free terrorist may have led to fight (Washington Times 8/8/2006)
• Israel's Deadly Prisoner Deal (Front Page magazine)
• The murder, described by Smadar Haran - the only member of the Haran family who survived (Washington Post article: "The World Should Know What He Did to My Family")
• "Hizballah Wants Israel to Free Child-Killer" (Cybercast News Service, July 18 2006)
• Video: Why We Fight - Israel, Hizbollah and Samir Kuntar (on youtube.com)
• Prisoner Exchange reports
• CNSNews.com
• Video: Palestinian and Lebanese Prisoners in Israeli Jails (on youtube.com)
• Israeli site about the Lebanese terrorist, Samir Kuntar.
• Nasrallah says no deal without Samir (BBC article "Nasrallah demands militant freed", September 12 2006)
• Israel okays deal despite assessments troops are dead (Jerusalem Post "The cabinet debated the deal for nearly six hours before the vote, which was approved 22-3...", June 29 2008)