The second oldest long-term detainee in Israeli jails,  Maher Younis (61 years old) from Arah village, enters his 37th year in jail on Friday. He is currently held at Negev prison, and he's the cousin of Kareem Younes.
Maher Younes was born on January 9, 1958 in Arah village in the occupied territories of Palestine, and he has five siblings. He ended his elementary study in a school in the village and then joined the Agriculture School in Al-Khdaira city. He was arrested by the Israeli army in 18/1/1983 after two weeks of the detention of his cousin Kareem younis. After his interrogation, the military prosecution of the occupying state accused him of belonging to the Fatah movement, illegally possessing weapons, and killing an Israeli soldier. He was sentenced to death penalty with the detainees Kareem Younis and Sami Younis on charges of "betraying the citizenship", since they were holding the Israeli ID and considered Israeli citizens.  A month later, the court issued a sentence to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. In September 2012, the occupation authorities set the life sentence of 40 years for a number of detainees, including Maher Younis.
Yunis was arrested before getting married, and thus he spent his youth in detention without establishing a family. He is also deprived of seeing his siblings' sons and daughters by a decision from the central court of Nazareth. His petition of seeing his father on deathbed in 2008 was rejected, and he did not see his father before passing away.
Younis has conducted an open hunger strike for 10 days on February 25, 2013 in order to highlight the suffering of detainees in Israeli prisons, especially the detainees from the Palestinian occupied territories who are excluded from exchange deals. He ended his strike after the intervention of the President Mahmoud Abbas who promised to put their issue on top priorities.
Younis is one of the detainees who were arrested before Oslo Accord, and one of the detainees who were supposed to be released within the exchange deal in 2013. Israel has released three groups of this deal; including 23 detainees for each group, and then breached the agreement and did not release the forth group, and who was supposed to be released on March 2013.
The forth group (27 detainees) of the exchange deal are still held in Israeli jails, half of them are from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, including Kareem Younes, Maher Younis, Ibraheem Abu Mokh, Rushdi Abu Mokh, Waleed Daqqah, Ibraheem Bayadseh, Ahmad Abu Jaber, Basheer Khateeb, Ibraheem Ighbaryeh, Mohammad Ighbaryeh, Yahia Ighbaryeh and Mohammad Jabari.