KOBAYAT: One of France`s longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter Georges Ibrahim Abd allah, arrive d in his hometown on Frid ay, having been released after more than 40 years behind bars on a charge of killing two diplomats.

Journalists saw a convoy leaving the Lannemezan prison in southwest France just after sunrise, and hours later, the 74-year-old was placed on a plane and sent back to Lebanon, to be welcomed by family members on his return to Beirut at the airport`s VIP lounge.

Back in his hometown of Kobayat, near the Syrian border in north Lebanon, hundreds of men, women and children gathered to welcome Abdallah.

`Whether or not we agree with his ideas... we first and foremost salute the man,` lawmaker Jimmy Jabbour, who is from the area, said, hailing Abdallah`s perseverance.

`The whole village is happy that he`s back... 41 years in prison, others would have probably lost their mind, said Kobayat resident Claudette Tannous, 68.

Earlier at Beirut airport, dozens of supporters, some waving Palestinian or Lebanese Communist Party flags, gathered near the arrival hall to give him a hero`s reception.

In his first public address after being released, Abdallah took aim at Israel`s bombardment of Gaza Strip, where human rights organisations have warned of mass starvation.

`The children of Palestine are dying of hunger while millions of Arabs watch,` he said.

`Resistance must continue and intensify,` added the former schoolteacher.

Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 over the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.-AFP