Israel releases Hamas co‑founder after two years in detention, son says

Israeli authorities released Hassan Yousef, a co‑founder of Hamas, on Thursday after more than two years of detention without trial in the occupied West Bank, according to his son Owais Yousef.

Yousef, 71, was freed near the southern West Bank city of Hebron and taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where he currently resides, Owais said.

He has been a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank since the group’s founding in the 1980s, alongside Sheikh Ahmad Yassine and other members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Israeli police have not yet responded to AFP’s request for confirmation.

Yousef had been held under Israeli administrative detention since October 2023, shortly after the Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, Israel has increased its use of administrative detention, allowing it to detain individuals for renewable six‑month periods without charge.

Israel argues the procedure helps keep suspects in custody while evidence is gathered, but critics and human‑rights groups claim the system is abused.

Yousef has been arrested several times over the years. His last release was in July 2020, following 16 months of administrative detention.

A former member of the now‑defunct Palestinian parliament, Yousef is estranged from his eldest son, Mosab Hassan Yousef, who spent ten years spying for Israel’s Shin Bet against his father’s movement.

From 1997 to 2007, Mosab Hassan Yousef worked for Shin Bet before moving to the United States, where he now lives under a new identity and authored the book “Son of Hamas”.

AFP

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