Mr. Kuntar, who was formally pardoned by Israel on Tuesday as part of the swap agreement, gave a different version of the night of the attack in his court testimony in 1980, excerpts of which were published for the first time on Monday in Yediot Aharonot, an Israeli newspaper. He told the court that Israeli gunfire had killed Mr. Haran as soldiers burst in to free him and that he did not see what happened to Mr. Haran’s daughter.

Smadar Haran, the widow, still lives in Nahariya, just six miles from the Lebanese border. So do Mr. Goldwasser’s parents; his wife’s mother lives just a few doors down. In a home surrounded by lush red bougainvillea, lemon and orange trees, and a high wall with a security gate, Mrs. Haran recently discussed her decision to speak out on the prisoner release.

Folding herself up on a high-backed striped couch, dark eyes staring straight ahead, she spoke softly but firmly of her decision not to stand in the way of Mr. Kuntar’s release.

“Samir Kuntar is not my private prisoner, and we live in a country where there is a framework for making decisions,” she said, echoing what she wrote in a letter to the prime minister and the cabinet ahead of their decision to proceed with the deal. “I asked them not to think about my personal pain and to make decisions according to the interests of the state.”

“What happened to me and my family will always be part of me, part of my personal pain, but it does not mean that I don’t see the pain of others, the Goldwasser and Regev families,” she said.