1979 Nahariya attack
Encyclopedia
The 1979 Nahariya attack (codenamed by its perpetrators as the Nasser Operation) was a raid by four Palestine Liberation Front
(PLF) militants in Nahariya
, Israel
on April 22, 1979.
The group, consisting of Abdel Majeed Asslan, Mhanna Salim al-Muayed, and Ahmed al-Abras, and led by 16-year-old Samir Kuntar
, used a small, 55 hp boat to travel from Tyre, Lebanon to Israel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four Israelis – including a father and two of his young children – and two of the perpetrators. Kuntar and al-Abras were captured, convicted of murder by an Israeli court, and sentenced to several life sentences.
Both Kuntar and al-Abras were later set free in prisoner swap deals conducted between Israel and Lebanese militant organizations – al-Abras in 1985, and Kuntar in 2008.
(PLF) militants entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group was headed by Samir Kuntar
(born in 1962) and included Abdel Majeed Asslan (born in 1955), Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed (born in 1960) and Ahmed AlAbras (born in 1949) – all members of the PLF
under the leadership of Abu Abbas
. The group departed from the seashore of Tyre in Southern Lebanon
using a 55 horse-powered motorized rubber boat with an 88 km/h speed. Their goal was to attack Nahariya
, 10 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya
.
The three remaining militants then broke into the apartment of the Haran family. They took 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor – Sasson's wife.
According eyewitnesses, when Kuntar's group found that the rubber boat they'd arrived in was disabled by gunfire, Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, according to forensic evidence and eyewitness court testimony, Kuntar killed the girl by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his rifle. Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place. A second militant, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, was killed in the shootout on the beach. Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmed Assad Abras, were captured.
On July 13, 2008, after being classified for nearly thirty years, File No. 578/79, containing the evidence and testimony from Kuntar's 1980 trial, was first published. According to the file, evidence presented by the pathologist at the trial showed that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument – most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist's report also showed that Einat's brain tissue was found on Kuntar's rifle.
Immediately following his capture, when his remand was extended, Kuntar confessed that he had bludgeoned Einat to death with the butt of his rifle. Later, however, when testifying in court, Kuntar denied the charges. In his testimony, Kuntar asserted that Israeli gunfire had killed Danny Haran as soldiers burst in to free him, and that he did not see what happened to Einat after passing out from blood lost from five bullet wounds. He explained that the group's goal had been to take hostages back to Lebanon, and that he had taken the 4-year-old to prevent Israeli police from shooting at them.
According to some sources Samir Kuntar and Ahmed AlAbras were sentenced to 5 life terms and that two Police officers were killed.
Palestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
(PLF) militants in Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
on April 22, 1979.
The group, consisting of Abdel Majeed Asslan, Mhanna Salim al-Muayed, and Ahmed al-Abras, and led by 16-year-old Samir Kuntar
Samir Kuntar
Samir Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze convicted murderer and former member of the Palestine Liberation Front...
, used a small, 55 hp boat to travel from Tyre, Lebanon to Israel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four Israelis – including a father and two of his young children – and two of the perpetrators. Kuntar and al-Abras were captured, convicted of murder by an Israeli court, and sentenced to several life sentences.
Both Kuntar and al-Abras were later set free in prisoner swap deals conducted between Israel and Lebanese militant organizations – al-Abras in 1985, and Kuntar in 2008.
Arrival
On April 22, 1979, a group of four Palestine Liberation FrontPalestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
(PLF) militants entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group was headed by Samir Kuntar
Samir Kuntar
Samir Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze convicted murderer and former member of the Palestine Liberation Front...
(born in 1962) and included Abdel Majeed Asslan (born in 1955), Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed (born in 1960) and Ahmed AlAbras (born in 1949) – all members of the PLF
Palestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
under the leadership of Abu Abbas
Abu Abbas
Muhammad Zaidan also known as Abū ‘Abbās or Muhammad ‘Abbās, was the founder and leader of paramilitary group the Palestine Liberation Front .- Political background :...
. The group departed from the seashore of Tyre in Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon is the geographical area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. These two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s...
using a 55 horse-powered motorized rubber boat with an 88 km/h speed. Their goal was to attack Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
, 10 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
.
Killing of Eliyahu Shachar
Upon landing on the beach in Nahariya, the group followed instructions issued in Beirut – which included finding a police officer and killing him. They knocked on the door of a private house and called out in Arabic via the intercom, frightening the inhabitants into calling the police. Then, they killed Police officer Eliyahu Shachar who came across them. According to the Israeli security services' reconstruction of the incident, officer Eliyahu Shachar was killed after he got out of his vehicle and fired two warning shots into the air. Kuntar's group responded with a massive burst of shots. Samir Kuntar boasted that he alone shot 30 bullets in this incident.Raid on apartment building and kidnapping
The group then entered an apartment building on 61 Jabotinsky Street planning to abduct two or three people and take them back to Lebanon. In an attempt to break into an apartment one of the residents shot and killed one of the PLF men – Abdel Majeed Asslan. Next, Kuntar's group encountered Moshe Sasson, a resident who was trying to reach the buildings bomb shelter carrying his two young daughters, one under each arm. Kuntar shoved Sasson and slammed a handgun into the back of his skull. However, Sasson escaped when the hall lights suddenly went out, and hid under a parked car.The three remaining militants then broke into the apartment of the Haran family. They took 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor – Sasson's wife.
Shootout on the beach
Kuntar's group then took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout erupted with Israeli policemen and a squad of soldiers from the elite Sayeret Golani.According eyewitnesses, when Kuntar's group found that the rubber boat they'd arrived in was disabled by gunfire, Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, according to forensic evidence and eyewitness court testimony, Kuntar killed the girl by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his rifle. Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place. A second militant, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, was killed in the shootout on the beach. Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmed Assad Abras, were captured.
Fatalities
The four Israeli victims of the attack were:- Police officer Eliyahu Shahar (24 years old).
- Danny Haran (32 year-old).
- Einat Haran, Danny's 4-year-old daughter.
- In addition, Danny's other daughter, two-year-old Yael, was accidentally suffocated by her mother, who was trying to keep the young girl quiet as they hid from the terrorists.
Trial
Samir Kuntar and Ahmed AlAbras were convicted of murdering four people by an Israeli court in 1980, and sentenced to four life sentences, and an additional 47 years for injuries inflicted.On July 13, 2008, after being classified for nearly thirty years, File No. 578/79, containing the evidence and testimony from Kuntar's 1980 trial, was first published. According to the file, evidence presented by the pathologist at the trial showed that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument – most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist's report also showed that Einat's brain tissue was found on Kuntar's rifle.
Immediately following his capture, when his remand was extended, Kuntar confessed that he had bludgeoned Einat to death with the butt of his rifle. Later, however, when testifying in court, Kuntar denied the charges. In his testimony, Kuntar asserted that Israeli gunfire had killed Danny Haran as soldiers burst in to free him, and that he did not see what happened to Einat after passing out from blood lost from five bullet wounds. He explained that the group's goal had been to take hostages back to Lebanon, and that he had taken the 4-year-old to prevent Israeli police from shooting at them.
According to some sources Samir Kuntar and Ahmed AlAbras were sentenced to 5 life terms and that two Police officers were killed.
Aftermath
- The killing of Einat Haran is regarded as one the most brutal terror attacks in the history of IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. - A day after the attack, Abu AbbasAbu AbbasMuhammad Zaidan also known as Abū ‘Abbās or Muhammad ‘Abbās, was the founder and leader of paramilitary group the Palestine Liberation Front .- Political background :...
, the leader of the Palestine Liberation FrontPalestine Liberation FrontThe Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
announced from BeirutBeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
that the terrorist attack in Nahariya had been carried out "to protest the signing of the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty" at Camp David the previous year. - In 1980 Smadar Haran married Yakov Kaiser, a clinical psychologist who had been severely wounded in the 1973 Yom Kippur WarYom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
. They have two daughters. Smadar is now a psychotherapist with a master's degree in social work. - Ahmed AlAbras was freed by Israel in the Jibril AgreementJibril AgreementThe Jibril Agreement was a prisoner exchange deal which took place on May 21, 1985 between the Israeli government, headed by Shimon Peres, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command...
of May 1985. - According to Leonard A. ColeLeonard A. ColeLeonard Cole, an expert on bioterrorism and terror medicine, is an adjunct professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey, where he teaches on terrorism issues in the Division of Global Affairs...
, Smadar Haran led a campaign in Israel to honor the victims of terrorism just as it does its fallen soldiers. In 1997 on Israel's memorial dayYom HazikaronYom Hazikaron is Israel's official Memorial Day. In 2011, Israel honored the memory of soldiers killed in the line of duty and the civilian casualties too.-Observance:...
, a memorial wall to terrorism victims was unveiled at the military cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl. - According to Leonard A. ColeLeonard A. ColeLeonard Cole, an expert on bioterrorism and terror medicine, is an adjunct professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey, where he teaches on terrorism issues in the Division of Global Affairs...
, In 2003 Samadar Haran opposed the release of Samir KuntarSamir KuntarSamir Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze convicted murderer and former member of the Palestine Liberation Front...
in exchange for the bodies of the 3 Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah during the 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid2000 Hezbollah cross-border raidIn the 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid Hezbollah militants captured three IDF soldiers; Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaid, while they were patrolling the security fence along the border with Lebanon, and took them across the border. It is not clear when or under which circumstances the...
, and for Elchanan TannenbaumElchanan TannenbaumElhanan Tannenbaum, is an Israeli businessman and formerly a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, who was kidnapped for some years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.-Kidnapping:...
, the Israeli businessman and former IDF colonel who was kidnapped by Hezbollah in Dubai after being lured out of Israel under the false pretenses of a drug deal. Although Hezbollah leader Hassan NasrallahHassan NasrallahHasan Nasrallah, became the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the previous leader, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Hezbollah in its entirety is considered a terrorist organization by The United States, the Netherlands,...
insisted, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan ShalomSilvan Shalom' , born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset for Likud and the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development. He previously served as the country's Foreign Minister and Finance Minister.-Biography:...
and Prime Minister Ariel SharonAriel SharonAriel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
said that "The murder of a family in Israel is unforgivable" and refused to release Kuntar. At the end Nasrallah backed down and Kuntar was not released in the 2003 swap. - Samir KuntarSamir KuntarSamir Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze convicted murderer and former member of the Palestine Liberation Front...
spent nearly three decades in prison before being released on July 16, 2008 as part of an Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap2008 Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swapThe 2008 Israel–Hezbollah prisoner exchange took place on July 16, 2008 when Hezbollah transferred the coffins of two Israeli soldiers in exchange for 5 Lebanese militants held by Israel as well as the bodies of 199 mainly Lebanese and Palestinian militants captured in Lebanon or Israel in the...
. He denies killing Danny and Einat, though admits to killing Eliyahu Shachar. He has never expressed remorse. In IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Kuntar is considered the perpetrator of one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in the country's history, while in LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
he is widely regarded as a national hero.
External links
- The murder, described by Smadar Haran – the only member of the Haran family who survived (Washington Post article: "The World Should Know What He Did to My Family")
- Israeli site about the Lebanese terrorist, Samir Kuntar.
- Video: '"Samir Kuntar – A new Hero!! " (A video posted by the Israeli government on youtube.com, can also be found on http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1002752.html)
- Video: excerpt from "MABAT", Israeli TV channel 1 news (the funeral of Danny, Einat, and Yael Haran, including speech of Prime-Minister Menachem BeginMenachem Begin' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
– on youtube.com in Hebrew)