RAMALLAH/GAZA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that releasing all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and prisons "is a priority for the Palestinian leadership."
Abbas made the remarks after the release of Karim Younis, a 65-year-old Palestinian from Israel who spent 40 years in Israeli jails, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
"The issue of prisoners is the issue of the entire Palestinian people, and it is our top priority. We will make every effort to release them from the detention centers of the Israeli occupation," Abbas said in an official statement.
Abbas congratulated Younis on his release from Israeli prisons, considering him "a symbol of the Palestinian people and the free people of the world's steadfastness."
To celebrate Younis' release, dozens of Palestinians greeted him in the town of Ara in northern Israel, his birthplace, by singing patriotic songs.
Younis, wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf and carrying a Palestinian flag, went to the graves of his parents in the town's cemetery, who had passed away while he was in Israeli prisons.
He told reporters that his joy at his release remains incomplete due to the fact that there were more than 4,000 prisoners in Israeli prisons, adding that he will continue his political career after his release.
Younis was detained in January 1983 after he was charged with belonging to Abbas' Fatah Movement, which was banned at the time, possessing weapons illegally and killing an Israeli soldier.
Israel detains around 4,700 Palestinians in 23 prisons, including 34 female prisoners and 150 children, WAFA reported in December last year, quoting statistics released by Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
In Gaza, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said in a press statement that during 40 years of Younis's detention, he embodied the most splendid images of challenge, steadfastness, and patience.
