Israeli authorities on Monday released Palestinian detainee Rushdi Abu Mokh, 58, after serving 35 years in prison.
ِAbu Mokh, from the predominantly Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye inside Israel, was detained in 1986, along with three colleagues, on charges of joining a resistance cell belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The sky, the streets, the sand, the fresh air, everything looks familiar to you, but to this old man, it is his first time to see/feel these things in 35 years! The Palestinian Rushdi Abu Mokh has been released today from the Israeli occupation prisons after 35 yrs of detention! pic.twitter.com/0zufCfUmbz
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 5, 2021
The cell was blamed for the abduction of an Israeli soldier and attempting to relocate him outside the Palestinian territories to use him as a bargaining chip in any prisoner swap with Israel.
Abu Mokh was slapped with a life sentence by an Israeli court before the sentence was reduced to 35 years in prison.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Israel has refused to release Abu Mokh and his colleagues in any prisoner swap deal with Palestinian resistance groups.
Awfully sarcastic; when the Palestinian veteran prisoner Rushdi Abu Mokh finished his 35-year sentence in the Israeli prisons last month, the Israeli prison's authorities decided he had to be detained for one more month for a traffic violation he made in 1986! pic.twitter.com/ZyZ3qcX6si
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 5, 2021
Israel is still holding 25 Palestinians, who were detained by Israel before the Oslo Accords.
According to Palestinian estimates, there are 4,400 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 39 women and 155 children, and around 350 being held under Israel’s administrative detention policy, which allows holding Palestinians without charge or trial.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
