Nearly 30 years after his arrest, convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was released on parole from a U.S. prison early Friday morning.

Both the Israeli government and the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that the 61-year-old Jewish-American man has been released from a federal prison in North Carolina, reports NBC News.

"The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement celebrating his release.

"After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family," Netanyahu said, noting that he has been fighting for his freedom for years, according to The New York Times. "May this Sabbath bring him much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead."

Pollard was convicted of spying for Israel in 1987 while he was working as a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst for transferring loads classified U.S. documents to Israeli handlers.

Although Pollard has been set free, he is restricted from leaving the country for the next five years. However, his lawyers are currently fighting his parole conditions so that he can move to Israel and reunite with his second wife. He is also expected to receive substantial back-pay from the Israeli government, which granted him citizenship while he was in prison.

"This is a dramatic moment ... This is a historic moment that brings to an end a tremendous effort that spanned many years," said Effie Lahav, head of the committee in Israel that lobbied for Pollard's release, during an interview on Army Radio.

A spokesman for Free Pollard, an Israeli-based group that has campaigned for his release, also issued a statement, saying, "He met his wife. It was a really, very, very moving moment, as you can imagine - the first time that they have been together as a couple out of jail, something that is really, really hard to imagine."