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Kuntar (left) and Nasrallah (right) from al-Manar TV
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| By Israel Insider staff July 18, 2008 |
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West Bank chieftain Mahmoud Abbas congratulated the family of Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, freed on Wednesday with four Hezbollah fighters. Abbas welcomed the swap and congratulated the families of the "liberated prisoners."
Kuntar has been imprisoned in Israel since 1979, after he carried out one of the grisliest attacks in Israeli history - killing a father in front of his 4-year-old daughter, and then killing the girl by crushing her skull with his rifle butt.
In Gaza,Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday hailed Kuntar as "a great hero" and said Israel's decision to release him and four Hezbollah fighters undermined Israel's policy of not freeing "prisoners with blood on their hands." He called the deal "a victory" for Hezbollah.
"The Israelis should pay the price for the release of Gilad Shalit," Haniya said. "It is hard to see thousands of prisoners still held in Israeli jails," He added.
People celebrated in the streets of Gaza, and handed out sweets in support of Hezbollah. "Today is a great victory for the resistance movements and to Hezbollah, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "It shows that the only successful way to free the prisoners is by kidnapping soldiers.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in an official ceremonyaddressed as 'freed heroes' the five Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and members of major political factions, including Hezbollah's rivals, also welcomed them on a red carpet with an honor guard.
President Shimon Peres, who pardoned Kuntar but said he did not "forget or forgive what he did", compared the solemn behavior of Israelis, mourning the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers with what he called Lebanese "dancing and drumming."
"I watch and hear what is happening on both sides of the barricade. In Lebanon there are victory celebrations," Peres said in a special address on the return of the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
"The heads of states, heads of Hezbollah are dancing and drumming before welcoming Kuntar - the murderer who with his rifle's butt smashed the skull of Einat, of blessed memory, who was four years old, and who shot her father in cold blood. In Israel, the people are crying. Today we are all the Goldwasser and Regev families."
The Lebanese government has declared Wednesday a national holiday to celebrate the "liberation of prisoners from the jails of the Israeli enemy and the return of the remains of martyrs." Israel also handed over almost 200 bodies of Palestinian terrorists and Lebanese fighters, including the woman who masterminded the Coastal Road Massacre.
The ever-effusive Peres even called it a supreme victory for Israel. "You can see where the pain is, where the happiness is. But if you ask really where is the supreme moral victory, and where is the human defeat - [look] in the reception of a unparalleled, base murderer, and the lighting of memorial candles for the remembrance of our loved ones - the answer is clear," he added.
A former cellmate of Samir Kuntar, Jaber Weshah, who is now deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, said: "Today is a true day of joy for all Palestinians and all freedom lovers across the world."
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, also condemned the celebrations. "Samir Kuntar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency," he said. |
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