Funeral of Samir Qantar Attended by Senior Hezbollah Officials in Beirut

Thousands gathered in Beirut on Monday for the funeral and burial of Samir Qantar, a well-known militant close to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah claims that Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli airstrike near Damascus, and while Israel has not confirmed such an attack, it welcomed the news of his death. Senior Hezbollah officials were present at Mr. Qantar's funeral. According to an Associated Press report, Hezbollah supporters bid farewell to Mr. Qantar's body, which was wrapped in Hezbollah's yellow flag, and Hezbollah has vowed to take revenge for his killing. On Sunday, Hezbollah announced in a statement that Samir Qantar was killed on Saturday night (December 28) along with eight others due to a rocket hitting the building where he lived in Jaramana, located south of Damascus. Hezbollah declared Israel responsible for this airstrike. In this context, Ayelet Shaked, Israel's Minister of Justice, stated in an interview with Israeli radio that she does not confirm Israel's role in the attack but is 'happy' to hear about it. However, Agence France-Presse reminded that shortly after Mr. Qantar's release in 2008, a senior Israeli security official had stated that he would be 'a target' for Israel. Samir Qantar was the oldest Arab prisoner in Israel, who, at the age of 16 in 1979, carried out an operation with three other members of the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine' in the settlement of 'Nahariya' in northern Palestine. In this operation, he killed a police officer and a 28-year-old Israeli man named Danny Haran, and also crushed the skull of his four-year-old daughter with the butt of his rifle. However, Israeli police managed to arrest him, and he was sentenced to four life sentences and 47 years in prison for the murder of three Israeli citizens. He was released in 2008 during a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah and was welcomed as a hero in Lebanon. In recent months, he had been fighting alongside Iranian forces in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad's forces. Iran, through its Foreign Ministry spokesperson, condemned the killing of Samir Qantar as 'the latest example of Israeli state terrorism.' On Monday, 212 Iranian parliament members issued a statement calling Mr. Qantar a 'freedom fighter' and 'the master of prisoners in Lebanon,' and expressed their condolences and congratulations on his death to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, demanding 'revenge against the Zionist regime.'