Palestinian prisoner released after 40 years amid Israeli ban on celebrations

Palestinian prisoner Maher Younis has been released after forty years in Israeli jails for resistance against occupation forces.

Maher, 65, along with several others including his cousin, Karim Younis, was put behind bars in 1983 on charges of capturing and killing an Israeli soldier three years earlier.

Maher was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to 40 years in jail. He was ultimately released on Thursday, two weeks after Karim.

In his hometown of Arara, Maher was warmly welcomed despite Israel’s decision to ban any gathering around his house. His mother showered him with petals and adorned him with a traditional white gown, a necklace of red flowers, and a ring, which belonged to his father, who died in 2008.

Despite the release of the two cousins, the Israeli regime is holding 23 Palestinians who have been imprisoned since before the signing of the Oslo accords between the Palestinians and Israel in 1993, which called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners 

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that Mohammad al-Tous, who has been incarcerated since 1985, has become the longest-serving Palestinian freedom fighter in Israeli jails after the release of Karim and Maher.

MG