According to Syrian and Lebanese media reports, Israeli warplanes struck a building in Jaramana, just outside Damascus, around 10.15 p.m. on Saturday, killing Samir Quntar and several Syrian civilians.
The Syrian authorities condemned the attack as a “terrorist act.”
“The Council of Ministers condemns this terrorist attack, which killed a number of innocent civilians, including the heroic Samir Quntar, the elder of the Lebanese inmates languishing in Israeli prisons,” the Syrian Cabinet said in a statement.
The Lebanon-based Islamist militant group confirmed Quntar’s death and blamed it on Israel.
Samir Quntar spent 29 years in an Israeli jail and was released in 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah.
Reuters earlier reported that Israeli civilian and military officials declined to comment on Saturday’s airstrike.
