JERUSALEM (JTA) — The son of a Hamas founder served as a spy for Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Haaretz reported.
Mosab Hassan Yousef served for more than a decade as the Shin Bet’s most valuable source on Hamas. He converted to Christianity 10 years ago and left the West Bank in 2007 for California, where he now lives.
Yousef, 32, is the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader in the West Bank.
His intelligence, under the moniker of "The Green Prince," led to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombing attacks and assassination attempts on Israeli officials, and the exposing of several terrorist cells, Haaretz reported Wednesday.
"Son of Hamas," a book written by Yousef and Rob Brackin, will be released next week in the United States.
Yousef’s intelligence led to the arrest of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and other high-ranking Palestinian officials who planned suicide attacks, according to Haaretz.
A senior Hamas leader, Ismail Radwan, told the French news agency AFP that the Haaretz report was "baseless slander."
"The Palestinian people have great confidence in Hamas and its struggle, and they will not be fooled by this slander and these lies of the Israeli occupation," he said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
