Draft:Sameer Sami Quntar

Sameer Sami Quntar
Sameer Sami Quntar
Name	Sameer Sami Quntar
Other Names	Dean of Prisoners
Personal Details
Birth Place	Lebanon
Religion	Islam
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SAMEER QUNTAR was a Druze faith member of the Palestine Liberation Organization who chose the Shia faith. He was arrested in operations against Israeli forces and sentenced to prison. He was released from prison in a prisoner exchange in 2008 CE between Israel and Hezbollah. He was martyred in an attack by Israeli fighters in Syria. Hezbollah refers to him as a hero and symbol of resistance.

Birth

Sameer Quntar was born in 1962 CE in Lebanon in a Druze family. His family were Lebanese fighters; Sameer joined the Palestine Liberation Front at the age of 14.

Military Activities

He was captured by Jordanian security forces during his first mission on the route of secret entry into Palestine and was in Jordanian prison for less than a year, and after release, he was banned from entering this country.

Operation in the Occupied Territories

At midnight on April 21, 1979 CE, 16-year-old Sameer Quntar, along with several other teenagers, reached the city of Nahariya, 10 kilometers from the Lebanese border. It is said that one of their goals was to kidnap an Israeli scientist for the exchange of Lebanese prisoners. The group under his leadership clashed with Israeli forces, which led to the killing of his companions and his arrest.

Thirty-Year Imprisonment

After Quntar's trial, the court sentenced him in 1980 CE to five life sentences and 47 years in prison on charges of murdering three people. Sameer Quntar was in prison for about 30 years. In 2004 CE, during the exchange of Hezbollah prisoners, he came to the verge of freedom, but Israel did not agree to his release at that time.

Release

On July 16, 2008 CE, two years after the 33-day war, Sameer Quntar was exchanged along with four Hezbollah members for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. His release after 28 years of imprisonment sparked much controversy and criticism in Israel, but at Beirut Airport, he was welcomed like a "national hero" by the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon at the time.

Travel to Iran and Syria

Quntar traveled to Iran in Bahman 1387 SH (2009 CE) and met with Iranian officials, including Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, Sameer Quntar has been active in the Golan Heights along with the Hezbollah movement.

Conversion to Shia Islam

Sameer Quntar was of the Druze faith. He chose the Shia faith while he was in an Israeli prison. In an interview published from him, he became familiar with Shiism and Nahj al-Balagha in prison and accepted the Shia faith. However, this matter did not become apparent while he was in prison because, according to Hezbollah Lebanon officials, revealing it would create the impression that Sameer Quntar changed religion to be released from prison.

Martyrdom

Sameer Quntar was martyred on December 20, 2015 CE, at the age of 53, as a result of a missile attack by Israel in Jaramana, near Damascus, Syria, and was buried in Dahieh, Beirut.