Karim Younis gestures as he is welcomed at his village in Ara, Israel January 5, 2023. Reuters/Ammar Awad
Ramallah: Israeli authorities released on Thursday the longest-serving Palestinian freedom fighter Karim Younis after spending 40 years behind Israeli bars, Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported.
Younis, 66, was detained on January 6, 1983, for his resistance to the Israeli occupation and sentenced to life in prison, which was later commuted to 40 years.
Younis and his cousin, Maher Younis, who has also been in Israeli prisons since 1983, were supposed to have been freed in 2014 in a deal brokered by then-US Secretary of State John Kerry in which Israel was supposed to be free in four different batches all Palestinian prisoners held since before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords that launched the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, but Israel refused to release Younis, saying that he had Israeli citizenship and it was an internal issue.
