A former Lebanese prisoner of Israel freed in a 2008 swap deal with Hezbollah has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, the party's Al-Manar television reported early Sunday.
Al-Manar said in its morning broadcast that Samir Kuntar was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Jaramana, on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus.
The report said the building was hit with four missiles launched by two Israeli warplanes.
Footage posted online appeared to show a building that had been completely destroyed in the town where Kuntar was reportedly staying. He is believed to have been a Hezbollah commander.
Kuntar's brother, Bassam, confirmed the death, writing on his Twitter and Facebook pages that his family was "was honored to join families of martyrs." He did not specify how he was killed.
Israel has carried out multiple strikes in Syria targeting Hezbollah and Syrian army positions over the last two years. Most of the strikes have hit what were reported to be weapons convoys destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Sunday's attack was Israel's first on a Hezbollah target since January when it hit a convoy in the Golan Heights area of Qunaitra, killing six Hezbollah members and an Iranian commander.
Hezbollah retaliated days after the strike by targeting an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two Israeli soldiers.
At the time, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed to respond to any Israeli attack on the party's members in Syria.
Kuntar spent 29 years in an Israeli prison over his alleged role in 1979 killings. He was released along with four other Lebanese prisoners in a 2008 swap deal with Hezbollah in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 war.
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