Arch-terrorist and Hezbollah official Samir Kuntar, who was assassinated Saturday night. Photo: Wikipedia.

A security breach may have allowed Israel to pinpoint the location of Hezbollah official Samir Kuntar in Syria and carry out his assassination late Saturday night, pro-Saudi daily Al Arabiya reported

“Reaching Kuntar [to kill him] should have been difficult, especially in light of the fact that the security procedures accompanying his movements were the same as those that are provided to the leaders and commanders of Hezbollah, and they were probably tightened after the discovery of more than one Israeli attempt to kill him in recent months,” the report said.

These security procedures could only be breached, according to the report, by one of two parties: “either his immediate circle which knew of his movements, the timing of his trips, and his place of residence, or the security services with which he coordinated in Syria.”

Therefore, the piece concluded, an internal security breach occurred, allowing the Israelis to find Kuntar and kill him. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied rumors of its responsibility for the attack.

Kuntar is the perpetrator of perhaps the most brutal terrorist attacks in Israel’s history. In April of 1979, at the age of 16, he kidnapped two members of the Haran family in Nahariya, 31-year-old father Danny and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat. He took them to a nearby beach and killed them — while mother Smadar hid in a closet and accidentally smothered her two-year-old to death.

Kuntar spent the next 30 years in an Israeli prison until he was released by Israel as part of a deal with Hezbollah to return the dead bodies of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.