Samir Kuntar - Child Killer

The recent reports by the official television station of Hezbollah have stated that; “three Druze members of Syria’s National Defense Forces (a branch of Syrian Armed Forces of  President Bashar al-Assad) were killed when an Israeli drone targeted their car at the entrance of the Druze village of Hader, in Quneitra Province.”

The names of all its members that were killed in the "alleged" Israeli Killer Drone attack were;

Hazem Raad from Beqaa , Abbas Hijazi from Ghazieh , Jihad Imad Moughniyah from Tair Dibba and  Mohammad Issa from Arab Salim.

It is NOT YET confirmed that  Samir  Kuntar from Abey Mount, Lebanon was among those killed.

This report was confirmed by, the so-called UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which said five people in total were killed in the airstrike. Two of those killed were from the Lebanese "resistance movement" Hezbollah, and three men from pro-government popular committees in the Druze town of Hader which has been witnessing clashes between militants and members of pro-Syrian government groups in recent weeks.

According to a report, which appears on the "the Algemeiner" web site, a person identifying himself as Samir Kuntar's brother, Bassem Kuntar claimed, “Samir is fine” and added his condolences to the “martyrs of the Syrian Arab resistance to the Israeli occupation in the Golan who were killed during the Israeli strike in the afternoon.”

I never remembered hearing in the course of the talks we had, during his visits to the clinic in the prison, with Samir that he had siblings. Since according to him his parents divorced soon after his birth and his mother died when he was a boy.
It is possible that the person referred to in this Tweet could possibly be his step-brother from his father's second wife Shiham.

Nevertheless there are as of now no confirmed reports from any source and Hezbollah itself is not reporting anything nor has Samir appeared to deny the reports as his "Brother" states.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the attack.

Who was / is Samir al-Kuntar?

Samir Kuntar was the infamous Lebanese born Druze who was once a member of the Palestine Liberation Front. He was convicted by an Israeli court of law of the ghastly murders in the attack on Nahariyah in 1979.
He was released on July 16, 2008, in exchange for the coffins containing the remains of the Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who had been killed, or severely wounded, at the time of their abduction in the act that started the 2006 "Second" Lebanon War.

On November 24, 2008, Kuntar visited Syria, where he met with President Bashar Assad. Assad awarded him the Syrian Order of Merit and in early 2009 he was honored by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I wish to point out to those who have accused my report as a lie and fabrication that I am aware of the story told by Dr. Zvi Sela, a former senior police officer to Coby Ben Shimhon of Haaretz in 2009 that 'al-kuntar"; "... told me he didn't do it and I believe him." As a side note, Samir Kunar was diagnosed as a habitual liar according to the psychiatrist who served  in my medical unit.

In the conversation from the article in Haaretz Dr Zvi Sela contradicts himself and proves how Kuntar lied to him when he states:

"That is what he says, and in my opinion there is support for the fact that they were killed by fire from the Israeli rescue forces. You can accuse him all you like, but it was obviously the rescue forces that opened fire. There were all kinds of legends about Kuntar. People also said that he would return to being a terrorist [after his release]. Nonsense. He told me then explicitly that he would not go back to terrorism, that he was too old to execute operations - and that's also clear."

If what Dr, Zvi Sela alludes to as Samir's story of innocence. Then why did Samir Kuntar accept the position in Hezbollah as leader of the military wing, after the death of Jihad Moughniyah? More importantly what was he doing on the Golan Heights? Why was he killed in the airstrike in Syria?

Also it should be noted that in July 13, 2008, after being classified for nearly thirty years, File No. 578/79, containing the evidence and testimony from Kuntar's 1980 trial, was first published. According to the file, evidence presented by the pathologist at the trial showed that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument – most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist's report also showed that Einat's brain tissue was found on Kuntar's rifle.

I myself know the truth because I was on the scene that fateful night in Nahariyah and I was an eyewitness to the whole ghastly murder.

I would like to relate what happened on the night of April 22^nd ,1979, when the group headed by Samir Kuntar (born in 1962) which included; Abdel Majeed Asslan (born in 1955), Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed (born in 1960) and Ahmed AlAbras (born in 1949) – all members of the PLF under the leadership of Abu Abbas entered Israel from Lebanon by a rubber dingy boat.

I was an active member of the Civil Guard of Ma’alot on patrol as the driver of the van patrol vehicle that fateful night. Around 11:45 PM Shabbatai Alon the commander of the Civil Guard in Ma'alot and I had gone to the Christian Arab village of Maaliyah on patrol to the Hila Lookout. We had stopped at the house of an old friend the commander an ex member of the Israeli Knesset Masaad Kassis to drink sweet black Arab coffee under his grape arbor outside. 
Shabbatai Alon  had served in the famous 101 Unit of the IDF and later joined the Israeli police where before his retirement had served as a commander of the Police Station of Moshav Meona. As we sat in the village of Maaliyah that night we left the door of the old Citroen police van open so we could monitor and listen in to the radio calls.

The four PLO terrorists landed in Nahraiyah opposite the beach front villa of Amnon Sela, the wealthy owner of a local transportation company, at around midnight. They walked up to the villa gate and pressed the intercom buzzer. Sela and his wife had noticed the suspicious figures carrying backpacks from the vantage point of the upstairs bedroom and had assumed they were burglars and telephoned the police.

Due to his standing in the community the Police responded immediately and the dispatcher called the watch commander Eliyahu Shachar who was the first to respond and quickly arrived at the scene.

We could clearly hear the voice of  Eli Schahar (24) the young police officer from Ma'alot on the police radio answer the call for a disturbance. 
I can still hear his final scream on the radio “Micablim, neftsati!" (Hebrew for "Terrorists, I've been wounded!") and then silence. Commander Alon and I jumped into the van and raced off in the direction of the main road (*89) between Ma’alot and Nahariyah. Just as we reached the Kibbutz Kabri summit we received a radio call to rush to Nahariyah.

After killing Eliyahu Shachar the Terrorist group then entered an apartment building on 61 Jabotinsky Street planning to abduct two or three people and take them back to Lebanon. One of the PFLP men, Abdel Majeed Asslan, broke into the apartment of Charles Shapiro (34), a recent immigrant from South Africa, after the door to his apartment had been shot up. Shapiro, who was armed with a 44 magnum revolver, shot through his apartment door at the terrorists standing outside killing  Asslan.

Kuntar and the two remaining terrorists Mhanna Salim al-Muayed, and Ahmed al-Abras ran downstairs where they encountered Moshe Sasson, a resident who was trying to reach the building's bomb shelter carrying his two young daughters, one under each arm. Kuntar shoved Sasson and slammed a handgun into the back of his skull. However, Sasson managed to escape when the hall lights suddenly went out, and hid under a parked car.

The three remaining terrorists then broke into the apartment of the Haran family taking the 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four-year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, who had heard the gunfire was able to climb up and hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two-year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor – Sasson's wife.
Regretfully the hysterical Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated her baby girl Yael while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place.

This is what occurred that night according to Smadar Haran Kaiser:

"It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.
Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat.
They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought."

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach.When we reached Nahariyah the terrorist had already taken Danny Haran and his young daughter to the beach and I remember seeing the actions described here according to a 1979 Israeli Maariv Newpaper which described the details of this attack: 

"After drowning Danny in the sea in front of little Einat (all this taking place as Ahmed Al-Brass and Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed stood and served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar) Kuntar, then turned his attention towards the frightened little 4-year old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the little toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. As little Einat was knocked to the ground, she was screaming and crying hysterically "mommy daddy help me," while thrashing her little legs around in the sand. But unfortunately Einat was alone, and no one was there to save her. Kuntar then dragged the little toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find, this was while she was begging him not to hurt her. Kuntar, then 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 little arms, Kuntar struggled with the little toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way so that he could aim for her head. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar proceeded on beating her on the head over and over with the butt of his rifle, and repeatedly stomping on her little body as hard as he could as well, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth, and her little cries faded away as she was knocked into unconsciousness. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued on beating her over the head, as hard as he could, several more times until her skull was crushed and she was dead." 

We, the members of the Golani Infantry Unit, could have killed Samir then and there but our officers protected him since he – "Surrendered".

What I remember was a fanatically wild eyed 17 year old filled with some astronomical hatred. When we captured him he defecated on himself and cried hysterically. He whined and cried as we covered him with a blanket on a stretcher. Some hero!

Years later, while serving in reserves as the Chief Medic at the prison where Samir Kuntar was being held. I remember the new hero of the Palestinians and Hezbollah as being overweight, suffering from hyperuricema, diabetes mellitus, dyspnea and severe water retention from his hypertension.

Epilogue:

Samir Kuntar and Ahmed Al Abras were convicted of murdering four people by an Israeli court of law in 1980, and they were sentenced to four life sentences, and an additional 47 years for injuries inflicted.
Ahmed Al Abras, was later freed by Israel in the Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange deal of May 1985

I have been asked what happened with Smadar. She is a social worker, she remarried and had two daughters.  

Samir Kuntar was killed December 19th 2015 in Jaramana, on the southern outskirts of Damascus. Hezbollah attributed his death to  four long-range missiles launched from Israel Air Force aircraft. In deference to the previous announcement in July 2015 this time Kuntar's his step-brother from his father's second wife Shiham acknowledged his death in a "Tweet"

If indeed Samir Kuntar was "neutralized" by Israel, it would bring some slight comfort to the Schachar and Haran families.