Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, having served a 30-year jail sentence in the United States, was released from a North Carolina prison on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the release of Pollard, a former U.S. navy intelligence officer convicted of turning over classified information to Israel.

"After three long and difficult decades Jonathan is at last reunited with his family," said Netanyahu, who had long pressed for Pollard's release.

Pollard, 60, was arrested in November 1985 and convicted in 1987. He was sentenced to life in jail and is being released after he was granted parole in July.

He will be required to remain in the U.S. for five years under the terms of his parole.

Pollard's supporters have said he was being punished too harshly since Israel is a U.S. ally and much of the classified information he passed on caused no damage to the U.S. and was intelligence to which Israel previously had access.

Israel admitted in the 1990s that Pollard was its agent and granted him citizenship.