Al Jazeera Documentary account on Facebook published information about released prisoner Karim Younis, titled (Behind every picture is a story), one of which was the following information: “He was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2023.” Accounts quoted what the Al Jazeera Documentary account published.
Kashif verified the information and found it to be inaccurate. The Israeli occupation authorities released Karim Younis on 5/1/2023 after he completed his 40-year prison sentence.
Younis was arrested on 6/1/1983, and according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, the Israeli occupation sentenced him to death at the beginning of his imprisonment, and later to life imprisonment, with his life sentence set at 40 years. The Israeli authorities refused to release Younis despite the passage of several exchange deals since his arrest.
Karim Younis, a member of the Central Committee of the Fatah Movement, was born on 23/11/1958, in the town of Ara. He joined Ben Gurion University in Beersheba to study mechanical engineering, and was arrested in the second year of his studies. Younis completed his studies while in captivity, and obtained a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.
Returning to the “Al Jazeera Documentary ” post, it became clear that it had made a set of amendments, in which it deleted the inaccurate information about the release of Younis as part of the 2023 exchange deal. Upon examining the “Al Jazeera Documentary” account on Facebook, it became clear that it had not apologized for the error and had not mentioned its presence in its post until the time of preparing this verification.
A temporary truce was reached between Hamas and the Israeli occupation in November 2023, which resulted in the release of 81 Israelis, 23 Thais, and one Filipino. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners, including 71 female prisoners and 169 children, but the Israeli occupation re- arrested a number of them later.
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered into force on Sunday, 19/1/2025, after Israel announced that it had received the names of three female detainees who were released on the same day. Israeli occupation forces released 90 female prisoners and children from Ofer Prison, southwest of Ramallah, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
On 25/1/2025, Hamas released four female soldiers in the Israeli occupation army: Karina Arif, Daniel Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Elbag, while the occupation released 200 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life and long sentences, as part of the second batch of the exchange deal in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
| Sources of verification | Sources of claim |
| Anadolu (1) Palestinian Prisoners Club Authority of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs Anadolu (2) Middle East (1) Middle East Meteor (2) | Al Jazeera Documentary Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman Affan |