BICOM

Three rockets were fired into northern Israel yesterday, in what was thought to be a revenge attack following the death of notorious Hezbollah-affiliated terrorist Samir Kuntar overnight Sunday.

Three rockets landed in open spaces near the towns of Shlomi and Nahariya, where public bomb shelters were opened. No injuries or damage was reported. Media reports say that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was behind the firing. Israel shelled targets in southern Lebanon in response.

The rocket fire was thought to be symbolic retribution for the death of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar, who was killed in an early Sunday morning air strike on a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. Kuntar was imprisoned in Israel for 30 years after he murdered a family in Nahariya, during a high-profile terror attack in 1979, in which he is thought to have battered a 4-year-old to death. However, he was released in 2008, in part exchange for returning the bodies of two IDF soldiers.

Since then, Kuntar affiliated himself with Hezbollah and returned to terror activity. He is thought to have spearheaded an attempt to open a front against Israel on the Syrian Golan Heights, leveraging his links with the local Druze community and pro-Assad militia. Ynet says that Kuntar was considered a “ticking bomb,” not only by Israel but also by other Western countries.

Lebanese media and the Iranian government which backs Hezbollah, has blamed Israel for the air strike which killed Kuntar. Israel has given no official response to the claims. Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz described Kuntar as a “despicable person” and that “no civilized person can be sorry” at his death.

Israel has remained firmly on the side-lines of the Syrian conflict, but is thought to have acted to prevent weapons transfers to Hezbollah and attacks on Israel’s border. In January, an apparent Israeli air strike in Syria killed prominent Hezbollah figure Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of the late Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh.