The Israeli authotirities on Thursday released the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner Karim Younis, after 40 years in jail.
66-year-old dean of the Palestinian prisoners was released after he completed his 40-year sentence in the occupation’s prisons.
The occupation authorities deliberately transported him in a police car from Hadarim Prison to a bus station in Raanana, north of Tel Aviv, the WAFA News Agency reported.
His family was not notified of his release.
As per media reports, Younis expressed his joy at seeing the sun for the first time after decades, he stressed that his joy is incomplete because there are 4,500 prisoners in Israeli prisons.
In his hometown, the Arab Israeli village of Ar’ara, Younis received a hero’s welcome. He was shrouded in a traditional Palestinian shawl, and his family, friends and supporters greeted him with cheers and carried him through the streets on their shoulders.
Immediately after his release, Younis went to the graves of his parents in Ar’ara, who had passed away while he was in prison.
In a brief speech after his release, the dean of the Palestinian prisoners, Karim Younis, confirmed his willingness to sacrifice another forty years for the sake of his people and their freedom.
Karim Younes Fadl Younis, known as the dean of the Palestinian prisoners, was born on December 24, 1956, in the village of Ara, located in the northern triangle in the Palestinian interior.
Israel convicted Younis on January 6, 1983, on several charges. He was accused of belonging to the then-banned Fatah movement , engaging in armed resistance, and killing an Israeli soldier. He was sentenced to death by hanging, then the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 2015 the occupation authorities set life imprisonment for 40 years.
The prisoner Younis is one of the 25 prisoners, who were arrested by the Israeli authorities since before the signing of the Oslo Accords, that is, before 1993, and for decades they refused to release them, despite the passage of a number of exchange deals and releases, the last of which was in 2014.
He was supposed to be released under an agreement signed in July 2013 between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation, which requires the release of all old prisoners detained before the Oslo agreement, but Israel refused to release him, saying that as Younis had Israeli citizenship, it was an internal issue.
It is reported that, over the course of 40 years, he participated in all the battles that the captive movement waged, including the hunger strike, which is considered the toughest of these battles, the last of which was the strike in 2017, which lasted for 42 days.
He served the longest sentence ever served by any Palestinian, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
There are currently about 4,700 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, including 150 children, and 835 people are being held without trial or charge.
