Jocelyne Zablit

Three months after his release from an Israeli jail in a prisoner swap, Lebanese militant Samir Kantar says he is more than ever committed to working to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

"As long as there is something called Israel in this region, the resistance must continue ... and I am totally committed to the resistance," Kantar, 46, told AFP in an interview. "I am ready to take part in any resistance mission."

Described as a monster in Israel where he was convicted for killing Danny Haran, his four-year-old daughter Einat and an Israeli policeman in a notorious attack nearly three decades ago, Kantar is considered a hero by many in Lebanon, where he was given a red carpet welcome on his release in July.

He said he now spends his days mostly in meetings linked to the resistance and was convinced that Israel was preparing a major attack against Lebanon.

"They don't realize what we have in store for them," he said, sitting in a seaside apartment on the outskirts of Beirut filled with medals, honorary plaques and pictures of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, a man he says he idolizes.

"Israel is going to suffer great losses and they will lose for sure," he added. "The idea that Israel is an invincible, secure state has become a myth."

He said that even if Israel withdrew from the contested Shebaa Farms territory in south Lebanon captured in 1967, the resistance would continue with its struggle to eliminate the Jewish state.

"The resistance will end only when the Zionist entity disappears," he vowed.

Recalling the cross-border raid that landed him in an Israeli jail in 1979, when he was just 16 years old and part of the Palestine Liberation Front, Kantar says he has no regrets and denies killing Haran and his daughter.

"I remember every detail of that night," he said calmly, pulling on a cigarette. "The father kept insisting on taking his daughter with him and that delayed the operation for about 10 minutes.

"He refused to leave her behind and clutched on to her. He was like a madman," he added. "We were not interested in the girl."

He said both were killed by Israeli fire during a fierce battle that took place as Kantar and his fellow militants tried to flee with the two Israeli hostages.

But according to forensic evidence and witness testimony during his trial, Kantar and his co-militants killed Haran and then battered Einat's skull with rifle butts.

"I just wish they would give as much importance to the children killed during the 2006 (Hezbollah) war with Israel and the Palestinian children dying every day," Kantar said.

Israeli security officials have vowed to hunt him down for his crime but Kantar said he was not especially concerned for his safety and realized he could never lead a "normal life" though he hoped to one day marry and have children.

He also brushed aside persistent rumours that he may stand in next year's parliamentary elections in Lebanon.

"I don't live with the obsession that I may get killed," he said, adding that he nonetheless had a security detail and took precautions.

As to his most searing memory of the time he spent in Israeli jails, Kantar said it concerned a prison guard who spoke to him in Arabic.

"He told me 'listen Samir, you are a young man now but by the time you get out you will have become a burden on society," Kantar said.

"I guess my message to the Israelis today is that they didn't manage to break me." -AFP