HEZBOLLAH: NO RELEASE OF SOLDIERS UNTIL FAMILY KILLER RELEASED

Hezbollah: no release until Kuntar freed (JTA)
Hezbollah said it will not release two captured Israeli soldiers until Israel releases a Lebanese man jailed for the 1979 murder of an Israeli family.

Mahmoud Kamati, a senior official of the Lebanese terrorist group, told an Israeli Arabic language newspaper that Samir Kuntar’s release was a condition for the release of two soldiers captured on July 12 in a cross-border raid, Ha’aretz reported on Friday. The raid and a series of rocket attacks launched the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon this summer.

Kuntar was sentenced to life for the 1979 attack in Nahariya. He shot Danny Haran to death in front of Haran’s 4-year-old daughter Einat, and then bludgeoned the girl to death. Another daughter, 2, was smothered to death by her mother, who was trying to keep her silent as they hid. Kuntar also killed a policeman.