Arab-Israeli released after 40-year prison term for killing soldier

Arab-Israeli Karim Younis, who spent 40 years in prison for killing an Israeli soldier, was released and greeted by hundreds of supporters in his home village.

With a black and white keffiyeh around his shoulders, 64-year-old Younis was met by a crowd singing the Palestinian national anthem in Ara in northern Israel.

"Every prisoner's story is the story of an entire people and I am proud to be one of those who sacrificed for Palestine," said Younis.

He was convicted in 1983 of the murder three years earlier of an Israeli soldier, Avraham Bromberg, in the occupied Golan Heights. His death sentence was commuted to a 40-year jail term.

"Forty years have passed as if they were nothing, because we consider this to be one of the main pillars of the struggle," said Younis, who was carried through the village while holding a Palestinian flag.

"The Israeli passport is the most despised in the world. It is a nationality that does not honour its bearer," he said.

Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri wrote to the state prosecutor requesting a legal opinion on revoking Younis' citizenship.

Younis is part of Israel's Arab minority, many of whom identify as Palestinians.

His decades in prison made him the longest-serving Palestinian detainee, either from Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories.

Younis was among a group of prisoners up for release a decade ago as part of a deal mediated by the then-US secretary of state John Kerry, but the negotiations ultimately collapsed.