Samir Kuntar

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Samir Kuntar

Samir Kuntar (Arabic: سمير القنطار‎, also transcribed Sameer, Kantar, Quntar, Qantar) (born July 20, 1962 in Aabey, Lebanon), is a Lebanese militant who belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front. He participated in the kidnapping of an Israeli family in 1979, and was convicted later that year of murdering three Israelis: an Israeli policeman, a 31 year-old man, and his 4-year-old daughter. He denied killing the civilians. Kuntar received four life imprisonment sentences in an Israeli court and spent nearly three decades in prison before being released on July 16, 2008 as part of a Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap.

Raid from Southern Lebanon

On April 22, 1979, at the age of 16, Samir Kuntar led a group of four PLF members who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group members included Abdel Majeed Asslan (born in 1955), Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed (born in 1960) and Ahmed AlAbras (born in 1949). They all belonged to the PLF 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. They called their operation the Nasser Operation.

Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya. The four killed a policeman who came across them. The group then entered a building on Jabotinsky Street where they formed two groups. One group broke into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. They took 31 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

Israeli witnesses claim Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Kuntar allegedly shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, eyewitnesses said he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle.^[1] Kuntar consistently denied killing the 4-year-old,^[2] asserting in his court testimony in 1980, only published in 2008, that Israeli gunfire had killed Mr. Haran as soldiers burst in to free him, and that he did not see what happened to Mr. Haran’s daughter.^[3]

Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hideout.^[4] A policeman and two of Kuntar's comrades were killed in the shootout on the beach; Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmed AlAbras, were captured. Alabras was freed by Israel in the Jibril Agreement of May 1985.

Murder of the Haran family

According to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat are the sight of them being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. From her hiding place, she could hear Danny reassuring Einat, who kept asking for her mother. When Yael cried for her pacifier, Smadar covered her mouth to stifle her whimpering. She remembers her daughter's tongue licking and sucking on the palm of her hand. Later, doctors and paramedics explained that the toddler had been 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 (as Ahmed Al-Brass, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, and Abdel Majeed Asslan served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar), Kuntar 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 dragged the toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find and laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her arms, Kuntar struggled with the toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar repeatedly beat her on the head with the butt of his rifle and stomping on her body, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued beating her over the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead.^[5]

According to Kuntar's former cellmate Yasser Hanjar, Kuntar "never expressed remorse, but maintains a different version [of the events] than the Israeli one"... "Kuntar firmly rejected allegations he had smashed the head of 4-year-old Einat Haran" ^[6]

Excerpts of Kuntar's court testimony from 1980 were published for the first time after he was released; according to him, Israeli gunfire had killed Haran when soldiers burst in to free him, and he did not see what happened to Haran's daughter.^[7]

Treatment in prison

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.^[4] Also during his imprisonment Kuntar graduated from the Open University of Israel in social and political science.^[8]

Negotiations for release

Several years later, the Palestinian Liberation Front seized the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, demanding that Israel release Kuntar, along with 50 other Palestinian prisoners, 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.

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.^[9][10]

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.^[11][12]

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.^[13]

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, Hezbollah was disarmed and Hezbollah was removed from the border areas.^[14]

Abduction of Israeli soldiers

Main article: Zar'it-Shtula incident

On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol, killed eight soldiers, and captured two others, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War. The captured soldiers were meant to be released in exchange for Samir Kuntar.^{[citation needed]} 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 was released on Wednesday 16th of July 2008. "^[15]

Prisoner exchange deal

Main article: 2008 Israel-Hezbollah Prisoner Swap

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.^[16] 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.^[17] Kuntar and four 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.^[18]

On July 16, 2008, Hezbollah transferred coffins containing the remains of captured Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev,^[19] in exchange for Kuntar and four Hezbollah members taken prisoner during the 2006 Lebanon War.^[20]