Son of Hamas founder was top Israeli agent for years, saved hundreds of lives

Son of Hamas founder was top Israeli agent

JERUSALEM — The son of one of Hamas’ founders says in a new book that he served as a top informant for Israel for more than a decade, providing top-secret intelligence that helped prevent dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis.

Mosab Yousef’s memoir, “Son of Hamas,” is being published next week in the United States, and highlights of the book and an interview with the author appeared Wednesday in Israel’s Haaretz daily. Yousef declined comment, but his Facebook page plugs the book as “a gripping account of terror, betrayal, political intrigue, and unthinkable choices.”

The revelation of such a high-level informant would deal another blow to Hamas, which suffered a key setback last month when one of its top commanders was assassinated in Dubai last month. Dubai authorities have accused Israel of carrying out the hit, and there have been reports that a Hamas insider assisted the killers.

Hamas, however, claimed it was suspicious of Yousef’s activities for years, and had kept a close eye on him to prevent him from gathering valuable information. His father, Sheik Hassan Yousef, a founder of the Islamic militant group in the 1980s and still a senior figure, issued a statement through his lawyer saying his son had been “blackmailed” by Israeli authorities during a stint in jail in 1996.

Mosab Yousef, dubbed “the Green Prince” by his handlers, told the Haaretz daily that he was one of Israeli intelligence’s most valuable sources in Gaza. His reports led to the arrests of several high-ranking Palestinian figures during the violent Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule that began in 2000, the newspaper said.

The younger Yousef converted to Christianity and moved to California in 2007.

Hamas officials rejected the Haaretz report as propaganda meant to divert attention from the Dubai assassination.

The elder Yousef said in his statement that when Hamas concluded Israel was extorting his son, “the members of the movement were warned about him.”

It said he was placed “under the supervision” of his father, whom it described as a politician uninvolved in militant activities. The elder Yousef is currently serving a six-year sentence in an Israeli prison for his political activities.

Collaboration with Israel is tantamount to treason in Palestinian society and can be punishable by death.

In his Facebook posting, Yousef told his friends his story “will blow your minds away. It is going to be like a tsunami in the Middle East” and “will spread like a wild fire.” His book plug describes Yousef’s journey as one that “jeopardized Hamas, endangered his family, and threatened his life.”

The book’s publisher, Tyndale House Publishers, which prints books with Christian themes, confirmed the details in the Haaretz report.

Yousef told Haaretz that Israeli intelligence agents first approached him in prison in 1996 and proposed he infiltrate the upper echelons of Hamas. He did so and is credited by Israel with saving hundreds of Israeli lives.

Yousef told the paper he hoped to send a message of peace to Israelis, though he remained pessimistic about prospects for ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

He had particularly sharp comments for Hamas, the Iranian-backed movement that seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and has been branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the West.

“Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels,” he told Haaretz.

He claimed, however, that his relationship with his handlers helped thwart an Israeli plan to assassinate his father.

The Shin Bet internal intelligence agency declined comment. But Haaretz published comments by a former official it said was Yousef’s former handler.

“So many people owe him their life and don’t even know it,” said the handler, identified in Yousef’s book only as Capt. Loai. He described one incident in which “the Green Prince” tracked a would-be suicide bomber in the West Bank town of Ramallah, enabling agents to arrest the attacker.

“This was an almost daily thing for the Prince,” he told the newspaper. “He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger.”

The techniques described in the report — recruiting a potential agent in jail and targeting a family member of a valuable target — are believed to be common tactics used by the agency.

The dramatic defection of someone of Yousef’s stature is a huge setback to Hamas, says Martin Kramer, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a conservative Jerusalem think tank.

“This obviously is the sort of thing that makes Hamas wonder whether there aren’t still more informers in their ranks,” he said.

AP reporters Diaa Hadid and Shira Rubin contributed to this report.