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Hamas co-founder in West Bank released without charge after 2.5 years in Israeli jail

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Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of Hamas in the West Bank whose son Mosab became famous for working as an Israeli informant, was on Thursday released from Israeli custody without charge after two and a half years of administrative detention, Palestinian media reported.

Yousef, 71, was arrested on October 19, 2023, at his home near Ramallah, as part of a wave of arrests of Hamas operatives in the West Bank following the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

His son Owais confirmed to AFP that Yousef was “freed near the southern West Bank city of Hebron” and taken to a hospital in Ramallah.

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Footage published after Yousef’s release showed him in the hospital with his hand in a bandage. It was unclear how he became injured.

Israeli police did not immediately respond to an AFP request for confirmation.

Yousef is a senior leader of Hamas in the West Bank, having co-founded the terror group in the 1980s along with Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and other Palestinian members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Israel has arrested Yousef several times over the years. He was last released in July 2020 from 16 months of administrative detention.

Israel has increased its use of administrative detention against Palestinians amid the Gaza war. The controversial system allows it to detain individuals for renewable six-month periods without charge.

Israel says the procedure allows authorities to hold suspects and prevent attacks while continuing to gather evidence, but critics and rights groups say the system is abused, as detainees are held for long periods without charge.

A member of the now-defunct Palestinian parliament, Yousef is estranged from his eldest son Mosab Hassan Yousef, who from 1997 to 2007 spied on Hamas on behalf of the Shin Bet.

The younger Yousef has since relocated to the US, where he wrote the book “Son of Hamas.”


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