AhlulBayt News Agency: Israeli authorities released Palestinian prisoner Raed al-Saadi on Saturday as part of the second batch of releases under phase one of the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Raed Mohammed Sharif Al-Saadi, 57, from the town of Silat al-Harithiya, northwest of Jenin in the northern West Bank, had been detained since 1989 and is the longest-serving prisoner from the Jenin Governorate.
Al-Saadi was pursued and arrested following the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987. He was sentenced by Israeli courts to two life terms in prison, in addition to 20 years.
Known for his active role within Israeli prisons at various levels, al-Saadi played a significant role among his fellow prisoners. He is also the author of a novel, My Mother Maryam the Palestinian.
Al-Saadi is among the prisoners detained before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. This group includes 21 prisoners, along with 11 others who were re-arrested after their release in the 2011 Gilad Shalit Exchange.
During his imprisonment, al-Saadi endured personal losses, including the death of his father, who had gone blind in his final years and was unable to visit him. He also lost his mother and brother, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
"I miss my father; to see the sparkle in his eyes that was taken from him in tears of sorrow and grief. I long for my mother’s soil; to stand at her grave, apologizing for the years she spent sitting at the threshold of the house, calling my name with every movement, hoping it would be me,” al-Saadi wrote in a heartfelt message after entering his 35th year in Israeli prisons.
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