JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian prisoner from a town in Israel has launched an open hunger strike after being jailed for over 30 years, a prisoners center said Sunday.

Maher Abdul Latif Younis, 54, is on hunger strike to send a message to the Palestinian leadership and draw attention to long-serving prisoners who have been neglected in prisoner swap deals, said Foad al-Khafash, the director of the Ahrar center for prisoner rights.

Younis told Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian member of Israel's Knesset, that he was on hunger strike because Palestinian citizens of Israel were treated worse than Jewish inmates in Israeli prison, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.