News Digest

Militant behind one of Israel’s most shocking murders killed in airstrike

A militant notorious for the murder of three Israelis, including a four-year-old girl, has been killed in an Israeli air raid. Samir Kantar, who was freed by Israel as part of a prisoner swap in 2008, died “when the Zionist enemy planes bombed the building where he lived”, his Hezbollah movement said. In Syria, reports referred to the 54-year-old Lebanese, who is on a US terrorist blacklist, as a martyr. But Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked said her country “was happy to learn the news” but did not claim responsibility for the strike in Jaramana, near the Syrian capital, Damascus. "It’s a good thing he met his maker,’ she added.

He was an arch-terrorist who killed a young girl by fracturing her skull and had continued his terrorist activities after being freed

Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked

As a teenager Kantar was jailed for shooting dead Danny Haran, 28, and battering his daughter Einat’s skull with rifle butts in an attack that shocked Israel to the core. But he and four other prisoners received a red carpet welcome in Lebanon in 2008 when they were exchanged for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. He vowed to continue his campaign to destroy Israel. His brother, Bassem, confirmed the militant’s death on Twitter, saying: “We are proud to have joined the long list of families of martyrs.” But Mr Haran’s widow Smadar said on Sunday that “justice has been done, especially when we know that he has continued to be active in terrorism against us since his release”.

(Kantar’s death) is a small comfort, but it doesn’t detract from the pain one bit

Danny Haran’s brother, Ronny