The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, Karim Younis, has been released after serving 40 years in Israeli prison. Younis was released at 5:30am (02:30 GMT).
Younis, 66,was released from Hadarim prison just north of Tel Aviv at dawn on Thursday morning.Younis,a native of Palestinian village of Ara in Israel, was warmly welcomed by large crowds of relatives and friends on Thursday.
According to Younis, 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. 
“He was a key figure in the Palestinian struggle,” Khan said.“He is seen as somebody who was a rising star within Palestinian politics when he was arrested and charged with murder.” “The Palestinians say he was simply resisting the occupation, the Israelis say this was an internal Israeli matter. He was originally sentenced to life, which was then commuted to 40 years. He is being released simply for the fact that he served his sentence,” Khan added.
Younis said that officers came to his cell in the early hours of the morning and told him he was to be released. “I wanted to shower and get ready, but they prevented me,” he said.Younis was eventually picked up by a relative and brought to his hometown of Ara.
Upon his release, Younis visited the grave of his mother who died eight months ago, with images of him emotionally at the grave .He 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.
