Hassan Yousef attains freedom after 24 years in Israeli prisons

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Jul 2023 16:46
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Hassan Yousef breaks the shackles of oppression after 24 years in Israeli occupation prisons.

A Hamas leader, Sheikh Hassan Yousef (File Photo)

Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef attained his freedom from Israeli occupation after being detained in late 2021. Yousef spent a total of 24 years in Israeli prisons after being arrested 20 times.

Israeli forces arrested Sheikh Yousef on December 13, 2021, from his home in the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah, after large-scale aggression into the city.

The freed Palestinian prisoner is a leader in the Hamas movement and a deputy in the Legislative Council. He is known for his advocacy for reform and support for prisoners and the oppressed.

Since 1971, Yousef has been targeted by the Israeli authorities due to his social and political activities. He was first arrested as a child at the age of 16.

His second arrest came in the early 1990s on charges of being affiliated with Hamas. The period of his detention ended with his deportation to Marj Zuhur in southern Lebanon for one year, along with 417 leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The period of exile had a significant impact on shaping his personality and highlighting him as one of the leaders of national and Islamic work in Palestine. He also served as a spokesperson for Hamas until he was elected a deputy in the Legislative Council.

This comes a few days after Israeli occupation authorities released on Thursday Palestinian prisoner Bashir Abdullah Kamel Al-Khatib, 60, from the city of "Ramla" in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, after serving his entire 35-year sentence in Israeli prisons.

The Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies mentioned that the Israeli occupation had arrested Al-Khatib on January 1, 1988, and charged him with possessing weapons and explosives and carrying out commando operations that led to the killing of settlers.

The occupation had sentenced Al-Khatib to life imprisonment, but after successful legal efforts in 2012, the occupation set him to 35 years in prison, which he spent moving between prisons due to his lengthy sentence before he gained his freedom and was released from Al-Naqab desert prison.

According to the Center, Al-Khatib was subjected to various types of harassment and violations by the Israeli prisons authority, adding that the occupation refused to include his name in the Wafa Al-Ahrar swap deal in 2011.

The Center highlighted that the number of prisoners detained since before the so-called Oslo Accords in 1994 has become 22 after the release of Al-Khatib, knowing that they have been all arrested for more than a quarter of a century and that the prisoner detained for the longest term, so far, is Mohammad Al-Tous from occupied Al-Khalil.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation continues to detain more than 4,900 Palestinians, including 61 female prisoners, 160 children, and more than 1,000 administrative prisoners.