Kuntar accuses Israel of fabricating story of child killing (Extra)

Jul 17, 2008, 19:40 GMT

Beirut - Released prisoner Samir Kuntar accused Israel late Thursday of fabricating the story of how he killed the four-year-old daughter of an Israeli man in 1979.

'Israel has fabricated the story about how I killed the child during the attack I carried out in 1979,' Kuntar told the Hezbollah- run Al Manar television.

He said that he read in the Israeli paper Maarev a report, which was published April 23, 1979, a day after he carried out his attack that the child was killed in cross-fire.

Kuntar stressed that he is not saying this to clear his image before Israelis, but because 'the Israelis have used this fabricated story to defame his image and the cause he is fighting for.'

Kuntar is a Lebanese militant who belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front.

Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze, was sentenced to four life sentences in 1979 for the deaths of Danny Haran, 28, his daughter and a policeman in Nahariya.

Kuntar and four others sailed 10 kilometres under the cover of night from south Lebanon to Nahariya in a 55-horse-power rubber boat. The mission, led by Kuntar and titled the Nasser Operation, brought Kuntar and the other militants to the Nahariya coast around midnight on April 22, 1979.

The group killed police officer Eliahu Shahar after he stumbled upon the gang. The men then entered an apartment building at Rehov Jabotinski 61 and broke into the Haran family's apartment, taking them hostage.

According to Israeli reports Kuntar and the other attackers took Danny Haran and four-year-old Einat Haran hostage as police reinforcements arrived on the scene.

The reports added that Kuntar then shot Danny Haran at close-range and threw his body into the sea. He then bashed Einat's head on rocks and with butt of his rifle, killing her instantly.

Kuntar has denied that he smashed the head of the child.