Kuntar

The good lesson Hezbollah gave the Zionist regime

By Marwa Osman* 

Leaders of the Israeli entity are set on imprinting in the minds of their colonial settlers as well as in the minds of their western supporters that the Israeli entity seeks peace while its enemies' “fanaticism” keeps forcing it into war. However, the world should come to know already that Israel has been a willing agent and a driving force in inflaming conflicts with both the Islamic Resistance Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria and with the Resistance in Gaza. How? By constantly initiating assassination attacks against prominent leaders of both resistance groups and then escalating the level of violence by striking back against the resistance’s retributions, rather than pursuing a strategy that's more inclined to handling the conflict.

At 10:15 p.m. on Saturday December 19, Zionist guided missiles struck a residential building in Jaramana city in Damascus countryside in Syria declaring the end of a hero’s long march in the path of justice. “The Dean of liberated detainees from Israeli prisons”, Mujahid Samir Kuntar was declared martyred in a statement by Hezbollah media relations along with several Syrian citizens in the Israeli strike.

The Israelis were full of grudge towards the Hezbollah Commander due to his long history of resistance. In 1979, at the age of 16, Kuntar and three other members of the Palestine Liberation Front penetrated the village of Nahariya in occupied Palestine by sea from Lebanon and got detained for his involvement in a heroic operation against the Zionists. He was sentenced to five life terms, plus 47 years for his role in the operation.

Kuntar remained in Israeli captivity for 29 years, making him the longest serving Arab prisoner of Israel. He was released along with four other Lebanese detainees in a 2008 swap deal with Hezbollah in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli occupation soldiers killed during the 2006 war.

As a result of this assassination, Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah repeatedly vowed that the Resistance will avenge the death of martyr Kuntar.

The big question though worrying Israel following the assassination of Kuntar was whether Hezbollah will respond and, if so, how and on which front after Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah repeatedly vowed that the Resistance will avenge his death.

Hezbollah responded on the evening of Monday January 4rth by targeting two armored military vehicles through by detonating a bomb near an Israeli military convoy on occupied Palestine’s volatile border with south Lebanon.

The blast occurred along a highway in the Shebaa Farms area, a Lebanese occupied area of land that straddles Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights inside Syria.

In an official statement, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the bomb and said it “destroyed an Israeli armored vehicle and injured those in it.” However, Israeli media claimed that there were no known injuries among the Israeli occupation soldiers.

The Israeli entity instantly shelled several Lebanese villages including Abbasiya, al-Majedeya and al-Wazzani with more than 50 Israeli shells according to the Lebanese security forces. Residents along the border said shelling from Israeli tanks and artillery landed around inhabited and agricultural areas inside Lebanon, but fortunately did not cause serious casualties.

The always overstretching Zionist entity could learn a thing or two from Hezbollah on this front. Two weeks of silence since the assassination date have proven that Hezbollah's strike in occupied Shabaa Farms was an exemplary of retaliation without escalation. That is, targeting where it hurts, where it is legitimate and where Hezbollah can single handedly end a round of conflict without negotiation, mediation or a cease-fire agreement at a time and place of the Resistance’s choice. Sayyed Nasrallah has always reiterated that the Resistance shall always respond to Israeli aggression anywhere the group chooses, and this means putting all borders shared with occupied Palestinian territories on high alert, not only in Lebanon but also along the Syrian border.

* Marwa Osman is a Media studies university lecturer at the Lebanese International University and a political commentator from Lebanon. She is also a member of The Blue Peace initiative's media network. She hosted a political show on 'Al Etejah English' TV channel, and she is often seen on 'Russia Today' as a panelist.


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