Speaking shortly after his release, Younis compared his prison experience to a “military operation.”
The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, Karim Younis, has been released after serving 40 years in Israeli prisons.
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli prison authorities released the 66-year-old Younis from Hadarim prison just North of Tel Aviv at dawn on Thursday morning.
Younis was arrested in 1983 and charged in Israeli courts with the killing of an Israeli soldier in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights three years prior.
Large crowds of relatives and friends greeted him on Thursday.
Speaking to Al Jazeera shortly after his release, Younis compared his prison experience to a “military operation.”
According to him, he had been moved between different police cars before being dropped off at a location that turned out to be a bus station in Ranana, a town north of Tel Aviv. There, he was able to get in contact with his family, with the help of a passer-by.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that Israeli forces have shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian during a raid on the Northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, the health ministry said the teenager identified as Amer Abu Zaytoon, was shot in the head on Thursday morning.
Zaytoon is said to be the fourth Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, after more than 170 were killed in 2022 in the territory, as well as occupied East Jerusalem.
It was reported that Zaytoon's death came after another 15-year-old Palestinian child identified as Adam Ayyad, was killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli special forces raided the Balata refugee camp in Nablus early on Thursday, during which clashes with armed fighters broke out.
A Nablus-based journalist, Bakr Abdelhaq said residents of the area narrated how Zaytoon was shot dead while he was walking in the camp and came upon the Israeli special forces.
However, Israeli police said that armed Palestinians had fired at a joint party of soldiers, border police and intelligence agents conducting a raid in Balata.
The Israeli forces then shot “an armed person, who fired at the forces from close range.”
It was reported that at least two other Palestinians were wounded after being hit with live ammunition during the raid while two were arrested.
Abdelhaq said that “There were armed clashes. They besieged the home of former prisoner Hassan Araysheh and then proceeded to raid it and beat family members inside, before arresting him.”