Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas’s original founders, called on Israel to set a time limit for the terror group to release all its hostages and to assassinate his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and other Hamas leaders if they don’t. Yousef’s statement was made in a video posted on X, formerly called Twitter, on Tuesday.
“Hamas must have a timeframe – a month or two or six months – to return the hostages and if they don’t return the hostages within the time frame, Israel must execute top Hamas leaders in prison, especially the mass murderers,” said Yousef.
“When I say execute top Hamas leaders, I mean no exceptions. That includes my own father, the co-founder of the Hamas movement. In this war, there are no exceptions,” added Yousef. “I made a mistake, 10 or 15 years ago when I saved his life many times…He was supposed to die for his actions. I saved his life. Things did not change, things got worse,” he added.
He warned that Hamas is intentionally dragging out negotiations to extend the temporary ceasefire.
“Hamas is going nowhere, and if we continue to negotiate with them, they will continue stretching this negotiations, taking us into a rabbit hole that will never end. And this is their goal: to get away with their crimes. We cannot allow this to happen,” Mosab stressed.
Mosab, 45, was born in Ramallah and became involved in Hamas activities as a youth, and viewed as an eventual successor to his father’s position in the terror organization. But while in Israel’s Megiddo Prison during his early adulthood, Mosab began to question Hamas’s ideology and tactics and became disillusioned with Hamas’s extremism.
He accepted an offer by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) to become an informer on condition that Israel would try to arrest, not kill, the targets of his intelligence tips.
As the son Sheikh Yousef, Mosab was privy to many Hamas plans. For around one decade, the intelligence he provided the Shin Bet foiled numerous suicide bombing attacks and assassination attempts, and exposed terror cells. Within the Shin Bet, he was referred to as “The Green Prince.”
In 2010, Mosab published his autobiography, “Son of Hamas.” He converted to Christianity and currently lives in the US.
Sheikh Yousef, has been in and out of Israeli prisons for years. Israel arrested him in Ramallah on Oct. 19 during a crackdown on Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Another 240 men, women, children and soldiers were taken back to Gaza as hostages. Some people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.
Approximately 155 Israelis and foreigners are still being held in Gaza, including Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old when he was taken hostage by Hamas along with his parents and 4-year-old brother from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
