Israel Releases “Dean of Palestinian Prisoners” After 39 Years


Jerusalem: Today, Saturday, 200 Palestinian prisoners were released as part of the ceasefire deal and exchange process between Hamas and Israel, led by Mohammed al-Tous, who is described as the “Dean of Palestinian Prisoners”, according to “Sky News Arabia”.



Al-Tous hails from the town of al-Jab’a in Bethlehem, south of the occupied West Bank, and was arrested in 1985, spending around 39 years in Israeli prisons. Al-Tous is 69 years old and was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of carrying out military operations against Israeli targets. He was shot during his arrest, and Israel demolished his family’s home 3 times.



Israel refused to release him in previous exchange deals, along with his fellow former detainees, the last of which was 2014. A year later, his wife’s health deteriorated and she fell into a coma for a whole year, until she died in 2015 without him being able to bid her farewell.



Al-Tous is one of the old detainees since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, and their number today is 21 prisoners, after the killing of Walid Daqqa last year. Earlier on Saturday, the Hamas Prisoners’ Media Office published a list of the names of 200 Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released on Saturday, including 121 sentenced to life and 79 with long sentences.



This came after Hamas handed over 4 Israeli female soldiers to Israel.

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