Samir Kuntar, a Druze who was completely sold out to the jihad, “became infamous for a brutal 1979 raid from Lebanon in which he helped kidnap an Israeli family from Nahariya, then smashed the head of a four-year-old Israeli girl, Einat Haran, with his rifle butt, killing her.” Hizballah hails him as a “martyr.”
“Hizbollah claims revenge attack on Israeli border patrol,” by Josh Wood, The National, January 5, 2016:
BEIRUT// Israel shelled southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon after Hizbollah targeted Israeli military vehicles on the border with an improvised explosive device.
Hizbollah said “the group of the martyr Samir Kuntar” carried out the attack in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, resulting in a number of injuries.
Israeli military spokesmen confirmed the attack, saying that two vehicles were targeted with an improvised explosive device in the area of Mount Dov and that Israel responded with artillery fire. They did not mention any casualties.
Lebanese media outlets, including Hizbollah’s Al Manar TV station, reported that Israeli shells hit a number of buildings in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli artillery strikes did not provoke further clashes and the situation along the border was reportedly calm following their cessation.
The Hizbollah attack was retaliation for the December 19 assassination of Lebanese militant Samir Kuntar. Imprisoned by Israel for nearly three decades for a 1979 attack in Nahariya that killed an Israeli man and his four-year-old daughter, Kuntar was released by Israel in a 2008 swap deal with Hizbollah. Following his release, Kuntar was welcomed home as a hero by the militant group and given a position within the organisation.
Since Israeli jets killed Kuntar in an air strike on a Damascus suburb last month, Hizbollah has repeatedly vowed to avenge his death.
In late December, Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said retaliation for Kuntar’s death was inevitable and would come either inside Israel or abroad.
“Whatever are the consequences and threats – which we don’t fear – we can’t tolerate and forgive those who shed the blood of our fighters and brothers,” he said in a speech aired by Al Manar.
Last week, the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot warned Hizbollah against retaliating for Kuntar’s death, saying the group would face “severe consequences” if it sought to threaten Israel’s security….