Kuntar with Hezbollah leader Nasrallah in 2009
Photo: AP
MK Bar-Lev confirms 'Israel behind Kuntar assassination'
Zionist Union MK slips up during Be'er Sheva event, agreeing the airstrike that killed the infamous Hezbollah terrorist was 'a great success for Israel'; he later issues clarification.
Even though Israel neither confirmed nor denied it, Zionist Union MK Omer Bar-Lev slipped up on Saturday, saying the IDF was indeed behind the assassination of Hezbollah terrorist Samir Kuntar.
During a cultural event in Be'er Sheva, Bar-Lev was asked about the topic, and when one of the other attendees declared the assassination "a great success for Israel," Bar-Lev responded with "True, definitely."
Samir Kuntar (Photo: EPA)
The MK then went on to say that "Israel has a long-term memory. As a young IDF officer I was called to the scene of that attack in Nahariya, where the terrorist tried to bargain for the hostages, and killed the members of the Haran family. So I have long-term memory as well, and this is definitely a message for (Hezbollah leader) Nasrallah."
Later on, Bar-Lev asked to "leave it at that."
After his comments made headlines, Bar-Lev issued a clarification: "When I was asked whether this was an Israeli operation, I said I would not get into (discussing) operational activities. Every assassination and every terrorist killed is a welcomed act, and it doesn't matter whether we had a hand in it or not."
MK Omer Bar-Lev (Photo: Yaron Brener)
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.
Kuntar was jailed for almost 30 years, for which he was known in Lebanon as "The Dean of Lebanese Prisoners" for being the longest-held prisoner in Israel, and was freed in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in 2008, in return for the bodies of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
He was then killed in an airstrike on his hiding place in Syria in late December.
