Hezbollah vows revenge for the death of Samir Kuntar
'The Israeli enemy will regret the assassination,' says terror organization's head of foreign relations, while head of Executive Assembly says 'score was not settled with Kuntar's assassination, a new score has been set.'
"The Israeli enemy will regret the assassination of Samir Kuntar," said the head of Hezbollah's foreign relations, Omar al-Mussawi, at Kuntar's funeral on Monday afternoon.
Thousands attended the funeral, including not only many senior Hezbollah militants, but also Lebanese politicians and leaders of Palestinian factions in the country. Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam even called the Kuntar family and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's aide, Hussein al-Khalil, to express his condolences.
"If the Israeli thinks he settled the score with Kuntar's assassination, then he is wrong. He knows he only set new scores," Al Din added.
"If Israel hasn't learned from all of its failed attempts to assassinate senior commanders, then it ought to know it committed a new stupid act by assassinating Kuntar," he continued, vowing that "only days separate us to the Israeli enemy."
Kuntar's funeral procession left from a prayer house in a suburb in southern Beirut towards the "Two Martyrs" cemetery in the city's Dahieh suburb, which is reserved for Hezbollah militants. Among others buried there are Imad Mughniyah and his son Jihad, who were also assassinated in Syria. Kuntar's coffin was covered with the Hezbollah flag.
Kuntar was killed in a reported airstrike on a six-story building in the city of Jaramana, south of Damascus. At least eight others were killed in the attack.
While Hezbollah attributes the attack to Israel, Jerusalem has remained mum about it and declined to comment. Meanwhile, a faction in the Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the assassination on Monday.
In 1979, when Kuntar was 16 years old, he infiltrated Israel on a rubber boat from Lebanon along with three other terrorists from the "Palestine Liberation Front." The four came ashore in Nahariya, shot dead police officer Eliyahu Shahar and broke into the apartment of the Haran family. There, they took Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat hostage, while mother Smadar hid in a crawl space with two-year-old daughter Yael.
Father Danny and daughter Einat were taken ashore, where a firefight ensued between the terrorists and police officers who arrived at the scene. Kuntar shot Danny Haran to death, and then cruelly smashed Einat's skull with the butt of his rifle, murdering her as well.
Two-year-old Yael was accidentally smothered to death while her mother was trying to stop her from crying and revealing their hiding place.
Another police officer was killed, along with two of Kuntar's cell members, in the gunfire that ensued.
